Early Versus Late Surgery for Intractable Seizures

It has been estimated that there are approximately 100,000 patients with medically refractory epilepsy in the United States. These patients are potential candidates for surgical treatment, with an additional 5,000 to 10,000 added to this pool each year. The data, however, indicate that only 1,500 surgical procedures for epilepsy were performed in 1991.9