Surgical management of drug-resistant focal epilepsy represents a successful treatment option in carefully selected patients. It is thus of utmost importance to identify patients amenable to epilepsy surgery early enough during the disease course and submit to a pre-surgical evaluation. The 13th ILAE School for Neuropathology and Epilepsy Surgery (the 1st meeting in Vienna) is designed to enable participants to better recognize and classify various lesional substrates of drug-resistant epilepsy. Advanced hands-on surgical training will be offered in small groups led by distinguished tutors who will give hands-on demonstrations on macro- and microscopical brain specimen. Participants will also have the opportunity to perform surgical approaches on cadavers and diagnose histopathological cases under the microscope.
Course Directors: Ingmar Blümcke, Karl Rössler and Christian Dorfer
Target Audience: Neurosurgeons, neuro-/pathologists, epileptologists, neurologists, neuroimagers, and basic researchers
Workshop description
Surgical management of drug-resistant focal epilepsy represents a successful treatment option in carefully selected patients. It is therefore of utmost importance to identify patients amenable to epilepsy surgery early enough during the disease course and submit to a pre-surgical evaluation.
The 13th ILAE School for Neuropathology and Epilepsy Surgery is designed to enable participants to better recognize and classify various lesional substrates of drug-resistant epilepsy. Advanced hands-on surgical training will be provided in small groups under the guidance of distinguished tutors who will give practical demonstrations on macro- and microscopic brain specimens.
Participants will also have the opportunity to perform surgical approaches on cadavers and diagnose histopathological cases under the microscope.
The workshop has already been held in Germany, Brazil, USA and China since 2013, with a focus on histopathology and the endorsement of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE).
Learning objectives of the ILAE curriculum
• Describe the common structural etiologies (hippocampal sclerosis, brain tumours, cortical
malformations, vascular lesions);
• Demonstrate working knowledge of indications for pre-surgical evaluation;
• Describe the importance of early surgical intervention regarding neuro-developmental, cognitive, behavioral and social integration aspects;
• Demonstrate working knowledge of etiologies amenable to surgical treatment and their prognosis in all age groups;