Lara Jehi, MD: Raising Awareness of the Benefits of Epilepsy Surgery
The chief research officer and epilepsy specialist at Cleveland Clinic detailed the reasons why epilepsy surgery is not utilized as often as it should, and her efforts to raise awareness.
"With any big problem the disconnect is at multiple levels. We cannot just point fingers."
The contrast between the growing evidence of the benefits of epilepsy surgery paired with the low number of patients actually opting for it has left clinicians and epilepsy neurosurgeons puzzled. The lack of epilepsy surgeries among these patients begs the question: Do patients fully understand the benefits?
A recent study led by Lara Jehi, MD, and colleagues found that epilepsy surgery is cost-effective for those with drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy. Jehi, the chief research officer and an epilepsy specialist at Cleveland Clinic, questioned and challenged both the clinician and patient communities to become more informed, as well as to inform others who may not fully understand epilepsy surgery.
In an interview with NeurologyLive, Jehi details where the problems of miscommunication with regards to surgery may come from, and how there needs to be multilevel changes before it is considered a common treatment option.
