History and Technical Approaches and Considerations for Ablative Surgery for Epilepsy

• Published in: Neurosurgery clinics of North America Vol. 27; no. 1; pp. 27 - 36
• Main Authors: Sinha, Saurabh, MD, Danish, Shabbar F., MD
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 2016
• Subjects: Ablative neurosurgery; Brain - surgery; Electroencephalography; Epilepsy; Epilepsy - surgery; History; History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Humans; Neurosurgery; Neurosurgical Procedures - history; Neurosurgical Procedures - methods; Stereotactic neurosurgery; Stereotaxic Techniques - history; Ablative neurosurgery; Stereotactic neurosurgery; Electroencephalography; History; Epilepsy
• ISSN: 1042-3680; 1558-1349
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nec.2015.08.002

The history of epilepsy surgery is generally noted to have begun in 1886 with Victor Horsley’s first report of craniotomies for posttraumatic epilepsy. With increased understanding of brain function and development of electroencephalographic methods, nonlesional epilepsy began to be treated with resection in the 1950s. Methodological improvements and increased understanding of pathophysiology followed, and the advent of stereotaxy and ablative technology in the 1960s and 1970s heralded a new era of minimally invasive, targeted procedures for lesional and nonlesional epilepsy. Current techniques combine stereotactic methods, improved ablative technologies, and electroencephalographic methods for a multidisciplinary approach to the neurosurgical treatment of epilepsy.