Surgical treatment for epilepsy. Results after a minimum follow-up of five years.

Forty-two patients have been surgically treated for medically uncontrollable epilepsy, using the Talairach and Bancaud methodology. The mean age of the patients was 19 years (range 6-54 years). The location of the epileptogenic zone was:frontal in 18 patients, temporal in 14, temporo-parieto-occipital junction in 4, parietal in 4 and occipital in 2. The overall surgical results are: 20 patients are seizure free and 6 patients had occasional seizures (62% success rate). There has been a significant decrease in the number of seizures in 12 patients. The seizures persist in 4 patients. Only two patients, both with a parietal focus, presented additional postoperative neurological deficit (mild paresis in the contralateral lover limb). This was preoperatively foreseen, and accepted by the patient, on guarantees of the removal of the epileptogenic zone and amelioration of seizures.