Synopsis:For several decades, brain surgery has been used to treat selected patients with severe, drug-resistant focal epilepsy. With improvements in diagnostic technologies and surgical techniques, the indications for epilepsy surgery have broadened, its use in younger children has increased and the outcomes for seizure control and quality of life have improved. Next month, the 500th epilepsy surgery patient will be operated at The Royal Children’s Hospital. In this Grand Rounds presentation, Dr Harvey will provide some background to epilepsy surgery in children, describe the changing landscape of epilepsy surgery at the RCH over the last 30 years, highlight the important role of neuroimaging advances, and mention some of the complex issues the epilepsy program is dealing with currently.

Speaker:Dr Simon Harvey is a paediatric neurologist and epileptologist in the Department of Neurology at The Royal Children’s Hospital, where his primary role is coordinating the activities of the epilepsy program and EEG laboratories. He is an Honorary Senior Fellow at The University of Melbourne, an honorary research fellow at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, and the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. Simon has worked on the International League Against Epilepsy Sub-Commissions of Paediatric Epilepsy Surgery, Neuroimaging and Neurophysiology.