Patients who are seizure-free after surgery for epilepsy tend to do well in the long term.
Until now, little has been known of the outcome for patients who have had an operation for intractable epilepsy. This involves removal of the region of the brain thought to be the focal point of the seizures,

Researchers at Yale University School of Medicine followed a group of 175 such patients for an average of eight years. They found that 63 per cent of them never relapsed. Those who did relapse were more likely to have had a longer history of epilepsy before surgery. This study suggests that maybe surgery should be considered sooner rather than later for those who fail to respond to anti-epilepsy drugs