Current View of Advances in Epilepsy

Abstract

A NEW ERA in the treatment of epilepsy has been ushered in with approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the first implantable medical device to reduce the number of seizures, development of a plethora of new antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), and advances in surgery, imaging techniques, and genetics research. At the 22nd International Epilepsy Congress, held this summer in Dublin, Ireland, more than 5000 neurologists, neurosurgeons, primary care physicians, and allied health professionals from more than 70 countries heard presentations that reflected the spectrum of change in the diagnosis and treatment of the disorder. The number of options that have become available to physicians and patients is enormous, said David W. Chadwick, MD, professor of neurology at the University of Liverpool, in Liverpool, England. Once, you could teach medical students all they needed to know about the management of epilepsy, fairly confident that the information about