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Abstract

The paper is a compendium of the talks delivered in the symposium on ‘Epilepsy: In Spanish: Pediatric Epilepsy. When Drugs Don´t Work’ in the ‘Joint 16th International Child Neurology Society and 49th Child Neurology Society meeting’ held in October 2020. The paper addresses the challenges and barriers of epilepsy surgery in pediatric population with drug resistant epilepsy from different perspectives, including epidemiology, multifactorial limitations, potential benefits, therapeutic approaches and novel techniques that have incremented the utilization of epilepsy surgery. The main objective of this symposium and subsequent paper is to let the readers know about other alternatives that can be used in their patients for improving their quality of life and outcomes, taking into account the devastating consequences in all aspects of life (risk of prolonged seizures, status epilepticus, physical injuries, shortened life span and risk of “Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy Patients” (SUDEP). Despite evidence of the beneficial effects of surgery in children (reduction in seizure severity/frequency, improvement in cognitive and neurodevelopmental functions, reduced mortality, improvement in quality of life), class I evidence for the superiority of epilepsy surgery over continued medical treatment in pediatric surgical candidates and reduced cost in the long term, it continues to be an underutilized resource. It is essential to concentrate the effort of all possible stakeholders including governmental and non-governmental agencies to recognize the importance and create epilepsy surgery programs.

Keywords

Refractory epilepsy children epilepsy surgery drug resistant epilepsy pediatric

Article Details

How to Cite
Pérez Poveda, J. C., Alonso Vanegas , M. ., Rios-Pohl, L., Pestana-Knight, E., Genel Castillo, M. A. ., & Vidaurre, J. (2023). Epilepsy surgery in pediatric population: a perspective from low-income countries. Journal of the International Child Neurology Association, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.17724/jicna.2023.217

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