CURE Epilepsy Discovery: Epilepsy Surgery May Be Beneficial in Reducing SUDEP

• To understand how epilepsy surgery can affect the risk of SUDEP, CURE Epilepsy-grantee Dr. Lisa Bateman and her collaborator, Dr. Catherine Schevon, analyzed rates and causes of mortality in people who had epilepsy surgery versus those who hadn’t.
• Their analysis suggests that for those who have had epilepsy surgery, there was a reduction in the occurrence of death, and significantly fewer deaths from SUDEP.
• The reduction in the occurrence of SUDEP for those who have had surgery appeared to be most significant in the first 10 years post-surgery.

Deep Dive:

Frequent, uncontrolled seizures, particularly generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS), are a risk factor for Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy or SUDEP^[1]. Epilepsy surgery can be an option to control or eliminate seizures in people with drug-resistant seizures. In addition to helping achieve seizure control, epilepsy surgery is also thought to reduce the risk of SUDEP, however, the evidence for this is limited. A strong understanding of how epilepsy surgery can affect SUDEP occurrence is important as it can help guide treatment decisions…

For the full article click HERE to visit the CURE Epilepsy site.