Neurosurgical Management of the Epilepsies

This is an authoritative review of the current status of surgical treatment of all the epilepsies. The participants come chiefly from the four major centers where this highly specialized type of neurosurgical endeavor is being done, namely, the Montreal Neurological Institute, the Surgical Neurology Branch of the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle, and finally, a similar department at the University of California at Los Angeles. The historical background is reviewed by one of the pioneers in this form of surgical treatment. The whole subject is covered in depth. The chapter by Arthur Ward, Jr, includes the most recent information available as to the nature of the "epileptic focus." It is, of course, an a priori fact that the existence of such a "focus" is the very basis for the surgical