Quality of life related to surgical treatment in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy due to mesial temporal sclerosis

Abstract

Introduction: Surgery is widely accepted as a modality of treatment for medically intractable seizures and the main goals of surgery as reduction or elimination of seizures without significant compromise in neurological function and improving QOL. Purpose: To assess QOL pre- and post-surgery in a sample of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) due to mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS). Methods: Thirty-five consenting subjects who had undergone corticoamygdalo-hipocampetomy were included in this study. They answered the ESI-55 before and six months after surgical treatment. Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) was used to study the changes in QOL and we also determined the effect-size of the sample. Results: After surgical treatment 18 (51%) subjects were seizure free, 10 (29%) had only auras and seven (20%) had partial seizures. The post-operative mean scores were higher than pre-operative scores, except for Cognitive Function and Limitation due to Cognitive Problems in the group with seizures. A significant improvement in QOL postsurgery was observed in the domains Health-Perception (1.24), Emotional-Well-being (1.32) and Energy/Fatigue (1.43). Conclusion: A long-term follow-up is necessary to identify meanigful changes after the surgery.