Establishment of epilepsy surgery in Peru

Abstract

Epilepsy surgery is a well-established treatment for certain types of intractable epilepsy. While there is a relatively high number of epilepsy surgery centers in Canada and the United States, the same cannot be said about many other parts of the world, such as South America. Although there are notable exceptions, such as Brazil and Colombia, formal epilepsy surgery centers have been lacking in many South American countries, including Peru. Although sporadic cases have been performed in Peru, there was no formal epilepsy surgery center in the country as of 2011. Beginning in 2008, with the support of the Partnering Epilepsy Centers in America program of the North American Commission of the International League Against Epilepsy, the Epilepsy Program at Western University in London, Canada, was partnered with the Department of Epilepsy at the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Neurologicas in Lima. This was the beginning of a long-term relationship that culminated in the establishment of the first 2 formal epilepsy surgery centers in Peru. The purpose of this communication is to briefly summarize the establishment of 2 independent epilepsy surgery programs in Peru and to document the methods with which this accomplishment was achieved.