1.Overview Epilepsy is not an independent disease, and there is no unified view on the definition of epilepsy. Most scholars believe that epilepsy is a clinical syndrome characterized by sudden, recurrent and transient central nervous system dysfunction caused by abnormal neuronal discharges in the brain, manifested as different disorders or both. Epilepsy is in turn a serious medical and social problem. The prevalence of epilepsy is 0.4% in the United States, 0.5% in Western Europe, and 0.4% to 1.5% in me. Any pathological process that may affect brain structure and brain function can cause seizures with many causes, including congenital malformations, infections, poisoning, trauma, tumors, cerebrovascular malformations, metabolism, chromosomal abnormalities, etc. Although most epileptic patients can get good results with systematic medication, long-term medication can cause poisoning and adverse changes in intelligence, personality and behavior. About 25% of patients with intractable epilepsy cannot be controlled by medication, and 25% to 80% of them can benefit from surgical treatment. Advances in preoperative evaluation of epilepsy surgery are first demonstrated by the establishment of mechanisms for preoperative evaluation of epilepsy. Integrated neurological and surgical, neurophysiological, neuroimaging, and neuropsychological evaluation has become the basic model for performing epilepsy surgery. Clinical symptomatology, video EEG (including interictal and ictal phases), MRl examination and neuropsychological examination of epilepsy became the principles and routines adhered to in preoperative evaluation. In addition, for the evaluation of complex cases, magnetoencephalography, PET, SPECT, MRS and fMRI and the application of intracranial electrodes can be applied flexibly as options. The interfusion techniques of structural neuroimaging (CT, MRI, DSA) and functional and metabolic imaging (fMRI, PET, SPECT) as well as electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography signals (MEG) are also in the process of gradual improvement. All these methods can help us to locate the source of epilepsy more accurately. Surgical methods The current surgical treatment of epilepsy is mainly for (1) symptomatic epilepsy (2) drug-refractory epilepsy (3) special types of epilepsy syndromes. The main surgical methods for epilepsy are: (1) anterior temporal lobe and medial structure resection and selective amygdala hippocampal resection for temporal lobe epilepsy; (2) focal resection for focal epilepsy; (3) pathogenic cortical resection for extratemporal lobe epilepsy; (4) cerebral hemisphere resection and corpus callosotomy for special epilepsy syndromes; (5) for refractory epilepsy not suitable for surgical resection treatment. Vagus nerve stimulation is still available as an option. (5) Vagus nerve stimulation is still an option for refractory epilepsy that is not amenable to surgical resection. The surgical treatment of epilepsy should yield satisfactory results. The outcome of surgery for temporal lobe epilepsy and focal epilepsy should have about 80% likelihood of seizure control or significant reduction; symptomatic epilepsy outside the temporal lobe also has about 50% to 70% likelihood. The goal of epilepsy surgery, in addition to seizure control, is more importantly quality of life improvement.