Estimated time of crisis between home and surgical treatment in patients with refractory epilepsy

Abstract

Epilepsy affects 2% of the world population. 30% of these patients are refractory to medical treatment; thus are candidates for surgery. Controlled epilepsy has serious physical, emotional, cognitive and social consequences. Hence the need for an early assessment to consider the benefits of surgery. Unfortunately, experience shows that in many centers surgery is delayed for several years. Objective: to evaluate the time it takes a patient is refractory to medical treatment from the onset of their seizures to surgery in epilepsy clinic of the General Hospital of Mexico. Material and methods: observational study, documentary retrospective of patients with refractory epilepsy who underwent surgery Epilepsy Clinic General Hospital of Mexico was conducted. Results: 272 patients undergoing various surgical procedures to control epilepsy January 1992 to June 2013 The age of onset of crisis was between 2 and 30 years old with a mean of 11 years were included. The time between onset of crisis and surgery was 2 years and a maximum of 32 years with a mean of 14.1 years. Conclusions: the delay in the evaluation for surgery is still very large. You need to do hard work at different levels of health care to ensure that patients are assessed earlier; therefore improve their quality expectations of life.