Improving Epilepsy Surgery Outcomes Using Virtual Patient Software

Photo credit: Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes

For those with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE), undergoing surgery to remove the part of the brain causing seizure activity is one option used to give people “seizure freedom”. However, the success rate of truly achieving this for patients has stalled, with surgery delivering success in around 50 per cent of cases over the past 50 years.

Depending on the patient, presurgical evaluation can require invasive intracerebral testing known as stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG). Results from a SEEG are still difficult to interpret, and there is no reliable measuring tool which combines the many prognostic variables impacting an individual’s condition. This makes it harder to predict a surgery’s potential success.

For epilepsy patients, newly developed Virtual Epilepsy Patient software is now set to boost the likelihood of successful surgery. A team of investigators from France’s Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes at Aix-Marseille Université have developed the software, which maps a whole-brain model of the epileptic networks in patients with DRE.

In addition to helping surgeons more accurately estimate the primary location of a person’s seizures, these personalised anatomical maps will help to predict the likely results of various surgical interventions.

The Virtual Epilepsy Patient software is the focus of an ongoing clinical trial in France. For further information, refer to the ClinicalTrials.gov database or read a summary by Physics World.