与流行的医学观点相反，癫痫手术数周后的癫痫发作提示该患者将会有癫痫持续发作。

澳大利亚墨尔本大学研究人员进行的一项研究发现了这些结果，该研究涵盖了接受颞叶切除术治疗癫痫的325例患者。这是一种最普通的治疗癫痫的手术。该区域是癫痫的始发区域，大多数患者可以去除或者减少癫痫发作。

墨尔本大学Anne M.McIntosh博士说：“我们推测某些接受这种手术的患者仍然出现癫痫发作的原因更加顽固。”
McIntosh博士和同事发现这些患者在术后4周开始有癫痫发作，而没有手术相关的激发原因诸如创伤或者肿胀，这些患者在数月后出现持续癫痫发作的可能性增高了8倍。研究人员指出：许多出现癫痫复发的患者并没有从手术获得发作频率下降的益处。这些研究结果报道在2005年1月24日的《神经病学年报》。
 
Seizures After Epilepsy Surgery
 
Contrary to the prevailing medical understanding, seizures in the weeks following epilepsy surgery signal a greatly increased likelihood that the patient will continue to have seizures.

These findings were the result of a study conducted by researchers at the University of Melbourne (Australia) involving 325 patients who underwent temporal lobe removal (lobectomy) for treatment of epilepsy. This is the most common form of epilepsy surgery. It is in the area where seizures commonly begin and eliminates or reduces seizures in most cases.

“We can speculate that some individuals who undergo this procedure have epilepsy that for some reason is more persistent,” commented lead author Anne M. McIntosh, Ph.D., of the University of Melbourne.

Dr. McIntosh and colleagues found that patients who experienced a seizure in the four weeks following surgery--in the absence of surgery-related triggers such as trauma or swelling-- were eight times more likely to have persistent epilepsy several months later. Still, the researchers noted that many of the patients who have epilepsy recur do have the benefit of reduced seizure frequency. The results were reported in the January 24, 2005, issue of the Annals of Neurology.