how do doctors know how treatments such as splitting your brain to prevent seizures really works?

today in psychology we were talking about the two brain hemispheres and we watch a video on a guy with epilepsy and to control it they seperated his left hemisphere from his right. the treatment worked but how do doctors know that taking a risk with such a delicate and essential part of the body wont result in death or other problems? i mean they have to experiment some how dont they? so what do they experiment on animals such as primates since they are the closest thing to us? or do they experiment on human beings?