What types of surgery are available in epilepsy surgery?

  Epilepsy surgery focuses on the removal of intracerebral lesions that cause seizures, including hippocampal sclerosis, brain tumors, cerebrovascular malformations (hemangiomas), old stroke lesions, and developmental malformations of the brain.  The most commonly performed type of surgery is temporal lobectomy, which involves removing a portion of abnormal temporal lobe brain tissue and is used to treat patients with “medial temporal lobe epilepsy syndrome”. In addition to surgery for temporal lobe epilepsy, the next most common type of surgery is surgery of the frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes. For epilepsy surgery in these areas, it is possible to use intracranially implanted invasive EEG techniques for precise localization of the epileptic region of origin. After obtaining satisfactory intracranial EEG data, precise resection of the epileptic focus will be performed based on the monitoring results.  In addition to these “excisional” procedures, when the condition is severe and the entire cerebral hemisphere is involved, a procedure to disconnect fibers between the hemispheres bilaterally or vagus nerve stimulation may be used to relieve the condition.