[Epilepsy surgery of Danish children 1996-2002].
BACKGROUND
Epilepsy surgery is done in order to obtain seizure freedom or to reduce the number of epileptic seizures in selected patients not responding to medical treatment. Few Danish children have had this treatment, most probably because of some restrictions imposed by The Danish National Health Board. We present the results of the first 22 Danish children who have had epilepsy surgery.


METHODS
All children up to the age of 15 operated from January 1st 1996 to May 1st 2002 are included. According to the guidelines of The Danish National Health Board, 17 children have been operated abroad because the epileptic focus was extratemporal or intracranial EEG-monitoring was necessary. Follow-up varied from five years and six months to one month.


RESULTS
At the time of the operation, all children had a long-lasting medical intractable epilepsy. 18 children had daily seizures and 15 were mentally retarded. Multi-lobar resection was performed in ten, hemispherectomy in three and lobar resection in eight children. Total seizure-free outcome was seen in 12 children, whereas three only had simple partial seizures (totally 68 per cent). The remaining children had at least a 50 per cent seizure reduction. On an average, the cognitive function was unchanged one year after the surgery. The majority of the parents stated that the behaviour of the child had improved on one or more specific issues. One mother stated that to a certain degree she regretted the operation. In four children, an unexpected complication was registered (slight hemiparesis and a hemianopsia).


CONCLUSIONS
The results documented that epilepsy surgery is effective for selected children in spite of long-lasting severe epilepsy. In order to alleviate the consequences of severe epilepsy it is, however, important to refer the patients early. There seems to be a need for more and early referrals for childhood epilepsy surgery in Denmark.
Uldall
Peter V
PV
H:S Rigshospitalet, Juliane Marie Centret, paediatrisk klinik 1, Neurocentret, neurokirurgisk afdeling.
Nielsen
Hanne
H
Alving
Jørgen
J
Buchholt
Jette M
JM
Herning
Gudrun Margrethe
GM
Høgenhaven
Hans
H
Madsen
Flemming Find
FF
Sahlholdt
Lene
L
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003718:Denmark; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000601:surgery*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D019635:Neurosurgical Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D016896:Treatment Outcome