• Van Dinh Tran, Bac Thanh Nguyen, He Van Dong, Bryan A Lieber, Jehan Bista, Hoe Van Vu, Tien Ngoc Bui, Hung Thanh Chu, Phuong Xuan Nguyen, Tuan Anh Nguyen, Tomonori Ono, Sang Tien Trieu, and Son Dinh Nhu.
• Vietnam Military Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam; Neurosurgery Center of Viet Duc Hospital, Hanoi, Vietnam.
• World Neurosurg. 2023 Oct 1; 178: e559e565e559-e565.

BackgroundEpilepsy surgery is traditionally difficult to pursue in resource-limited countries but is nevertheless essential in the treatment of medication-refractory, surgically amenable epilepsy.MethodsWith the help of international collaboration, a successful epilepsy program was started in Vietnam. This article comprises a retrospective chart review, combined with prospective longitudinal follow-up of 35 cases of unilateral drug-resistant epilepsy in the temporal lobe who underwent temporal lobectomy, in Viet Duc University Hospital from May 2018 to September 2022.ResultsThe female/male ratio was 0.6:1, and focal seizures with impaired awareness accounted for 97.14% of patients. Of patients with focal awareness seizures, 51.41% were localized and detected by electroencephalography. Postoperatively, 80% of patients were seizure free (Engel I) at 1 year, and the remaining 20% had worthwhile seizure improvement (Engel II). Postoperative temporal lobe pathology was categorized as follows: mesial temporal sclerosis (48.57%), focal cortical dysplasia (25.71%), and low-grade neoplasms (25.71%). Of patients, 17.14% had postoperative complications (5 infections and 1 transient extremity paresis), and there were no deaths.ConclusionsEven in low-resource environments, effective and safe surgical care can be provided for drug-resistant epilepsy caused by temporal lobe disease. This study serves as a model of international collaboration and support for future hospitals in low-resource environments to replicate.Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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