Neuropathology and epilepsy surgery

Abstract

Purpose of reviewNeurosurgical treatment of patients suffering from drug-resistant focal epilepsy is recognized as a successful, yet underutilized medical treatment option. By searching PubMed for articles published between January 2020 and September 2021 with the broad search terms 'neuropathology' AND 'epilepsy surgery', this review highlights the active field of etiology-based epilepsy research in human tissue. Recent findingsAll papers addressing the most common epileptogenic human brain disease entities, i.e. focal cortical dysplasia (FCD), brain tumors or hippocampal sclerosis, and written in English language were eligible for our review. We can conclude from this review that etiology-based studies are of foremost interest for (1) the development of prediction models for postsurgical seizure outcome; (2) decipher genetic and molecular alterations to better define disease entities and underlying molecular pathomechanisms, and (3) the translation of human tissue-derived biomarker into clinically useful diagnostics or novel therapeutic targets in the near future.