Introduction
Epilepsy is a chronic disorder of the brain that affects individuals of all ages worldwide. It is one of the world’s oldest documented disorder. It is described as having multiple unprovoked seizures. Seizures are short occurrences of involuntary movement that may include a part of the body (partial) or the entire body (generalized) and are sometimes accompanied by loss of consciousness and control of bowel or bladder function. Seizures are an outcome of excessive electrical discharges in a cluster of brain cells. This can happen in several different portions of the brain. The characteristics of seizures differ and depend on where in the brain the disruption originates, and how far it spreads. (Mayo Clinic, 2018, para. 8-9)
Epilepsy …show more content…
Epilepsy has a noteworthy impact on the economic implications in relation to health care needs, premature death and lost work productivity. (World Health Organization, 2018, para. 95-98)
Nearly one-third of epilepsy patients have medically-refractory epilepsy. Patients with refractory epilepsy typically undergo a work-up including but not limited to, inpatient EEG monitoring, neuroimaging, and functional neuroimaging to identify the seizure onset focus and determine whether they may benefit from epilepsy surgery. Well selected candidates who undergo the surgery achieve seizure freedom 30 to 60% of the time. Of those who do not achieve seizure freedom, many have improved seizure control, making epilepsy surgery a particularly efficacious treatment with relatively minor risks. Despite the potential benefits, epilepsy surgery remains largely underutilized. National projection suggests that there are roughly 1,000,000 individuals in the United States of America with refractory epilepsy. Approximately, 10 to 50% of these should be potential surgical candidates; however, only a rough estimate of 2,000 epilepsy surgical procedures are performed every year in the United States. There is limited data on the social distribution of epilepsy surgery. Inequalities in health and in access to heal care are well documented in most medical conditions and there is also ample evidence that minorities with epilepsy may be receiving lower levels of care than the corresponding white population in North America. On the other hand, only a few studies have targeted the socioeconomic status and racial distribution of epilepsy surgery. In a series of 70 adults who underwent temporal lobectomy for refractory epilepsy between 1998 and 2003, after controlling for potential confounders, African Americans had a 60% less
Epilepsy is a chronic disorder of the brain that affects individuals of all ages worldwide. It is one of the world’s oldest documented disorder. It is described as having multiple unprovoked seizures. Seizures are short occurrences of involuntary movement that may include a part of the body (partial) or the entire body (generalized) and are sometimes accompanied by loss of consciousness and control of bowel or bladder function. Seizures are an outcome of excessive electrical discharges in a cluster of brain cells. This can happen in several different portions of the brain. The characteristics of seizures differ and depend on where in the brain the disruption originates, and how far it spreads. (Mayo Clinic, 2018, para. 8-9)
Epilepsy …show more content…
Epilepsy has a noteworthy impact on the economic implications in relation to health care needs, premature death and lost work productivity. (World Health Organization, 2018, para. 95-98)
Nearly one-third of epilepsy patients have medically-refractory epilepsy. Patients with refractory epilepsy typically undergo a work-up including but not limited to, inpatient EEG monitoring, neuroimaging, and functional neuroimaging to identify the seizure onset focus and determine whether they may benefit from epilepsy surgery. Well selected candidates who undergo the surgery achieve seizure freedom 30 to 60% of the time. Of those who do not achieve seizure freedom, many have improved seizure control, making epilepsy surgery a particularly efficacious treatment with relatively minor risks. Despite the potential benefits, epilepsy surgery remains largely underutilized. National projection suggests that there are roughly 1,000,000 individuals in the United States of America with refractory epilepsy. Approximately, 10 to 50% of these should be potential surgical candidates; however, only a rough estimate of 2,000 epilepsy surgical procedures are performed every year in the United States. There is limited data on the social distribution of epilepsy surgery. Inequalities in health and in access to heal care are well documented in most medical conditions and there is also ample evidence that minorities with epilepsy may be receiving lower levels of care than the corresponding white population in North America. On the other hand, only a few studies have targeted the socioeconomic status and racial distribution of epilepsy surgery. In a series of 70 adults who underwent temporal lobectomy for refractory epilepsy between 1998 and 2003, after controlling for potential confounders, African Americans had a 60% less