Evaluation of quality of life of patients before and after epilepsy surgery

It is one of the common neurological diseases that occur with seizures due to abnormal electrical discharges, which are caused by increases caused by various stimuli of nerve cells in the brain, and show motor, cognitive and behavioral symptoms. It is a disease that affects patients psychologically, socially, biologically and physiologically and has a significant impact on the quality of life of patients due to frequent epileptic seizures in the brain. In the case of resistant epilepsy, in which seizure control cannot be achieved despite the antiepileptic drugs they use, patients begin to receive polytherapy, and these patients begin to receive polytherapy, combined with the anxiety of having seizures, leading to alienation from society and a decrease in their quality of life. Epilepsy surgery, on the other hand, is a surgical intervention performed to reduce or improve the condition of frequent seizures. This research was carried out in a descriptive and cross-sectional design in order to evaluate the quality of life of patients before and after epilepsy surgery. The sample of the study consisted of 24 patients who applied to the Neurology/Neurosurgery Department of a private foundation university hospital between April 2022 and June 2022 and met the inclusion criteria of the study. In the study, the patients' preoperative Quality of Life Scale in Epilepsy (QOLIE-31) total score was 50±9.33, while the postoperative QOLIE-31 scale total score was 73.75±6.47. There is a significant correlation between the pre- and postoperative quality of life scale total score values (p<0.05). There is a positive and moderately significant correlation between the effects of preoperative drugs and the postoperative scale total score of the scale sub-dimension (r=.422, p=0.04). Along with the care given to the patients, nurses also have knowledge and experience about the quality of life of the patients, contributing to the support of the patients in terms of expressing themselves in the society and taking an active role, and gaining a different perspective.