Post-Traumatic, Drug-Resistant Epilepsy and Review of Seizure Control Outcomes from Blinded, Randomized Controlled Trials of Brain Stimulation Treatments for Drug-Resistant Epilepsy.

BACKGROUND: Many post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) patients become resistant to medications. Nervous stimulation as a treatment for drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) is an active area of clinical investigation.

OBJECTIVE: To summarize methods, reported seizure control outcome measures, and adverse events from blinded, randomized control trials (RCTs) for selected invasive brain stimulation (IBS) and non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) treatment options in patients with DRE.

METHODS: PubMed was searched for articles from 1995-2014, using search terms related to the topics of interest. Available relevant articles reporting the outcomes of interest were identified and data was extracted. Articles in the reference lists of relevant articles and clinicaltrials.gov were also referenced.

RESULTS: Eleven articles were analyzed with a total of 795 patients identified. Studies showed that select nervous stimulation treatments significantly reduced seizure frequency in patients with DRE.