Language after temporal or frontal lobe surgery in children with epilepsy.
The purpose of this study was to compare language function in children undergoing temporal or frontal lobe surgery to control intractable epilepsy. Language measures (expressive vocabulary, receptive vocabulary, comprehension, reading, spelling, phonemic fluency, and category fluency) were administered to 9 children with frontal lobe epilepsy (mean age: 10.8 +/- 2.7 years) and 10 children with temporal lobe epilepsy (11.5 +/- 2.6 years). The results indicate that no differences exist, in language function, before and after surgery between children with frontal and temporal lobe epilepsy (all p > or = .05). Children with left hemisphere lesions had significantly lower scores than those with right on category fluency and comprehension, but laterality effects were not seen on the other measures. In both groups, language function was not significantly affected by surgery.
Blanchette
Nicholas
N
Department of Psychology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. nicholas.blanchette@sickkids.on.ca
Smith
Mary Lou
ML
D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D017034:Epilepsy, Frontal Lobe / Q000601:surgery*; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D011184:Postoperative Period; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014888:Wechsler Scales