At the present time, good results are achieved with several techniques in selected patients, and these results are now obtained with safer procedures in presurgical evaluation and smaller risk of neurologic sequels and adverse effects. In the short term, surgery for epilepsy reduces the frequency of seizures, although this varies greatly with clinical situation and intervention type.
The available long term data suggest that the results of surgery in patients with mesial temporal sclerosis, in spite of their high short term effectiveness, worsen with time. High relapse rates are observed at one year of follow-up.
The measures of results have been based fundamentally on the decrease of seizure frequency after the intervention. There is little evidence of the long term effects of surgery as well as the global impact of the intervention in patients' quality of life and social integration. It is estimated that 5-15% of patients are reoperated upon.