Initiating an epilepsy surgery program with limited resources in Indonesia

Abstract

To share the experiences of organizing the epilepsy surgery program in Indonesia. This study was divided into two periods based on the presurgical evaluation method: the first period (1999–2004), when interictal electroencephalogram (EEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were used mainly for confirmation, and the second period (2005–2017), when long-term non-invasive and invasive video-EEG was involved in the evaluation. Long-term outcomes were recorded up to December 2019 based on the Engel scale. All 65 surgical recruits in the first period possessed temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), while 524 patients were treated in the second period. In the first period, 76.8%, 16.1%, and 7.1% of patients with TLE achieved Classes I, II, and III, respectively, and in the second period, 89.4%, 5.5%, and 4.9% achieved Classes I, II, and III, respectively, alongside Class IV, at 0.3%. The overall median survival times for patients with focal impaired awareness seizures (FIAS), focal to bilateral tonic–clonic seizures and generalized tonic–clonic seizures were 9, 11 and 11 years (95% CI: 8.170–9.830, 10.170–11.830, and 7.265–14.735), respectively, with p = 0.04. The utilization of stringent and selective criteria to reserve surgeries is important for a successful epilepsy program with limited resources.