The surgeon who performed a delicate three-and-a-half hour operation on rugby league legend Wally Lewis to control his epilepsy is confident it was a success.
Lewis, 47, underwent brain surgery today at The Austin Hospital in Melbourne after discovering he had epilepsy last year.
Speaking after the operation, the neurosurgeon who performed the procedure, Associate Professor Gavin Fabinyi, said he was confident it had been a success.
"The operation has gone well," Prof Fabinyi said.
"Everything went smoothly and ... he's moving all his arms and legs which is always a good thing," he said.
"We've done what we expected to do, which was to take out part of the temporal lobe which seems to be the cause of his epilepsy.
"It did appear to be abnormal, which means that we are in the right place."
Lewis, whose wife Jacqui was with him in recovery, has been moved to a high dependency ward where he will be carefully monitored overnight in case there is any abnormal swelling or bleeding.
Prior to the surgery, Lewis spent eight days at the hospital wired to monitors and having seizures induced to see whether the last-resort surgery was possible and if it would work.
"Wally reached the point where the tablets weren't working and there was no other option to cure his epilepsy," Prof Fabinyi said.
"The prognosis for the seizures was that they probably would have worsened over time, and the failure to respond to medication meant that the likelihood of him getting rid of his seizures in any other way was very low."
Lewis has been under the care of neurologist Professor Sam Berkovic since late last year, when he began having problems presenting the evening sports report on the Nine Network in Brisbane.
The first indication came during a November 16 news broadcast when Lewis previewed the sports segment, but was not on screen when the program returned from an ad break.
A similar event occurred on November 30, when Lewis appeared on screen and began to read the autocue, saying "Good evening" before appearing distressed.
Following those incidents, Lewis was given medical leave for the rest of the year and on December 1 he revealed that he suffered epilepsy.
Lewis will spend the next five days recovering in The Austin Hospital and another five days in Melbourne before returning home to Queensland.
It could be up to 12 months before doctors know if the operation has been a complete success.
"We would judge the success by no seizures, and the ability for him to get a driving licence, which would be a minimum of 12 months following the surgery," Prof Fabinyi said.
Lewis represented Australia in 33 rugby league Test matches, played 31 State of Origin matches for Queensland and was captain of the Brisbane Broncos NRL side in 1988-89.
AAP