Psychosocial outcome after extratemporal epilepsy surgery: a prospective clinical study.

Aim: The purpose of this prospective clinical study was to examine the short- and long-term psychosocial outcomes of a consecutive series of patients who underwent extratemporal lobe resection due to medically-refractory epilepsy.

Materials And Methods: The sample consisted of 23 consecutive patients and all patients completed a questionnaire assessing especially psychosocial outcome 6 months and 2 years after surgery. Results obtained at short- and long-term follow-ups were compared to baseline. Furthermore, the impact of seizure freedom on the psychosocial outcome was sought.

Results: The results suggested that, psychosocial outcome was improved after surgery compared to preoperative status regardless of seizure status. At long-term follow-up, significant improvements were found in social and psychological variables (p < 0.05). Levels of side effects from medication were high at long-term compared to baseline (p = 0.003). Seizure free patients showed better psychosocial outcome than those who had seizure during the postoperative period, however; only the "impact of epilepsy" scale showed significant improvement at 6 months after surgery (p = 0.02).

Conclusion: These results provide evidence that surgery caused appreciable improvements in psychosocial well-being, however; seizure freedom is not key to improving the psychosocial life of patients who have undergone extratemporal lobe epilepsy surgery.