title: Pediatric intractable epilepsy: the role of presurgical evaluation and seizure outcome.
abstract: Surgical experience with long-term follow-up is limited in childhood intractable epilepsy, compared with adult epilepsy. To assess the role of each presurgical evaluation modality and to identify prognostic factors for favorable seizure control after epilepsy surgery, 38 children with intractable epilepsy who underwent surgery were retrospectively reviewed. Among the available preoperative evaluation modalities, PET and neuropsychological testing showed the highest rates of positive results, whereas MRI was the most concordant with EEG findings. During a follow-up period of at least 12 months, 26 of the 38 patients showed favorable seizure control (Engel classifications I and II). The best seizure control was achieved in patients with a temporal resection and discrete lesion on magnetic resonance imaging. In spite of the invasive study, the less satisfactory results followed an extratemporal resection. We conclude that epilepsy surgery benefits children with intractable epilepsy and that the role of invasive study should be reestablished according to the area of resection and presence of discrete lesion on MRI.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Seoul National University Hospital and Neuroscience Research Institute, SNUMRC, Korea.
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Y S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: I O
authors.initials: IO
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.forename: B K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Cho
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D019635:Neurosurgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome