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When confronted with refractory seizures, various courses of action become available to physicians and to patients. The doctor can reevaluate the diagnosis and the medication therapy. The person with epilepsy can consider strategies for remembering to take medications and reduction of precipitating factors, if any. When medications do not work, then non-medication therapy for the epilepsy can be considered, including epilepsy surgery or vagal nerve stimulation.
Surgery is a reasonable option for people with refractory epilepsy, provided that the seizure origin in the brain can be localized to one region, and that region is safe to remove. Success rates for cessation or near-cessation of seizures ranges from about 50-90%, depending upon the cause of seizures and their brain location. Epilepsy surgery is elective surgery, meaning that it is a matter of personal choice, not necessity.https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/neurosurgery/for-patients/conditions/intractable-epilepsy.aspx
'''Of the 2.2 million Americans with epilepsy, approximately 30% have intractable epilepsy and continue to have seizures despite treatment with medications.'''http://www.naec-epilepsy.org/documents/naecbrochureinpdf.pdf
'''LB estimates that the State of TX is home to approximately 1.97 million epilepsy patients.'''
*Of those patients, as many as 655 thousand may be suffering from I.E.
