This lengthy book aims to be the definitive text and practical clinical reference on medical and surgical treatment of epilepsy, one of the most common and serious neurological conditions, which affects 50 million people worldwide. (In the UK alone, 65 people a day will suffer their first attack.) The chance of developing epilepsy at some point in life has been estimated as high as 3.5% (1 in 30). In most cases it is a chronic condition requiring long-term medical treatment, and the affected individual is considerably ...
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This lengthy book aims to be the definitive text and practical clinical reference on medical and surgical treatment of epilepsy, one of the most common and serious neurological conditions, which affects 50 million people worldwide. (In the UK alone, 65 people a day will suffer their first attack.) The chance of developing epilepsy at some point in life has been estimated as high as 3.5% (1 in 30). In most cases it is a chronic condition requiring long-term medical treatment, and the affected individual is considerably handicapped despite bearing no outward signs of disability. The book provides a detailed review and distillation of the available literature, supplies answers to the range of questions encountered in daily clinical practice, and guides the clinician through the difficult decision-making processes involved in the successful therapy of this debilitating disease. The book opens with a concise summary of the recent scientific developments in epileptology and a discussesion of the classification and diagnosis of epilepsy. This material is followed by a lengthy medical section about the indications, clinical pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, toxicity and outcome of drug treatment. Thereafter, a surgical section deals with indications, patient selection, pre-surgical assessment, surgical technique, anaesthesia, complications and outcome. While the usual treatment of epilepsy is a complex process involving careful and rational analysis of a large number of variables, its successful outcome is rarely achieved. Despite rapid advances in both medical and surgical treatments in recent years, the complexity of treatment, unfortunately, has also increased concurrently, and important unresolved issues and controversies remain.
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