The chances of survival beyond 10 years in children with treatment-resistant epilepsy were highest after surgery.
- In France, half of people suffering from epilepsy are under 20 years old.
- After cranial surgery, the survival rate of children affected by drug-resistant epilepsy beyond the age of 10 was 98.45%.
- This operation “is recognized as a safe and effective treatment, even in infants less than three months old”, according to the researchers.
In France, around 600,000 people suffer from epilepsy, half of whom are under 20, according to health insurance. The treatment of this chronic disease is based on taking antiepileptic drugs. “But for about a quarter of patients, these drugs are insufficiently ineffective and epileptic seizures persist. Surgical intervention (neurosurgery, brain radiosurgery or thermocoagulation) can then be considered.”
A higher survival rate in children with epilepsy who have had surgery
According to a recent study, after this operation, the risk of premature death in children would be reduced by more than 80%. To reach this conclusion, they compared the survival rate of 18,292 patients, aged 0 to 17, with drug-resistant epilepsy. A total of 10,240 young participants were taking only anticonvulsant drugs, 5,019 patients were using anticonvulsant treatments and vagus nerve stimulation. And finally, 3,033 children took anticonvulsant drugs and had undergone cranial surgery.
“The chances of survival beyond 10 years for patients following medical treatment were 89.27%, 92.65% for those using anticonvulsant treatments and vagus nerve stimulation and 98.45% for the volunteers benefiting from the surgical intervention”, can we read in the results published in the journal The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.
Epilepsy: surgery, “a safe and effective treatment even in children under 3 months”
“The catastrophic underuse of epilepsy surgery can directly lead to preventable premature deaths in children with epilepsy each year. Epilepsy surgery is recognized as a safe and effective treatment, even in children under the age of 3 months We need to improve early referral to comprehensive epilepsy assessment to limit the harmful effects of ongoing seizures on the developing brain and reduce the time to surgery We show that children’s lives may depend on it”, said Sandi Lam, lead author of the study, in a statement.
