Citation

Baca CB, Cheng EM, Spencer SS, Vassar S, Vickrey BG. Epilepsy Behav. 2009; 15(4): 452-455.

Affiliation

Department of Neurology, University of California at Los Angeles, 911 Broxton Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA. cbower@mednet.ucla.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.yebeh.2009.05.010

PMID

19541545

PMCID

PMC2746976

Abstract

We assessed the nature and frequency of preoperative expectations among patients with refractory epilepsy who were enrolled in a seven-center observational study of epilepsy surgery outcomes. At enrollment, patients responded to open-ended questions about expectations for surgical outcome. With the use of an iterative cutting-and-sorting technique, expectation themes were identified and rank-ordered. Associations of expectations with race/ethnicity were evaluated. Among 391 respondents, the two most frequently endorsed expectations (any rank order) were driving (62%) and job/school (43%). When only the most important (first-ranked) expectation was analyzed, driving (53%) and cognition (17%) were most frequently offered. Nonwhites endorsed job/school and cognition more frequently and driving less frequently than whites (all P0.05), whether expectations of any order or only first-ranked expectations were included. Elucidating the reason for these differences can aid in the clinical decision-making process for resective surgery and potentially address disparities in its utilization.

Language: en