Intracranial neurostimulation for epilepsy

Abstract

There have been significant advances in stimulation of the central nervous system applied to epilepsy over the last couple of decades. A number of similarities arise, regardless of target: there appears to be a latency to beneficial effect, and there appears to be progressive improvement in the degree of seizure reduction in responders over a period of months. Further basic research will help advance the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of these procedures. With all of these techniques, increased numbers and stratification of results to specific epilepsy syndromes will help to allow us to appropriately select patients for these procedures. The seizure freedom rates with these neuromodulatory techniques do not approach those achieved with resective surgery - leaving them as techniques to be considered in patients who are not resective candidates.