Cerebral hemispherectomy: hospital course, seizure, developmental, language, and motor outcomes.
OBJECTIVE
To compare hemispherectomy patients with different pathologic substrates for hospital course, seizure, developmental, language, and motor outcomes.


METHODS
The authors compared hemispherectomy patients (n = 115) with hemimegalencephaly (HME; n = 16), hemispheric cortical dysplasia (hemi CD; n = 39), Rasmussen encephalitis (RE; n = 21), infarct/ischemia (n = 27), and other/miscellaneous (n = 12) for differences in operative management, postsurgery seizure control, and antiepilepsy drug (AED) usage. In addition, Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS) developmental quotients (DQ), language, and motor assessments were performed pre- or postsurgery, or both.


RESULTS
Surgically, HME patients had the greatest perioperative blood loss, and the longest surgery time. Fewer HME patients were seizure free or not taking AEDs 1 to 5 years postsurgery, but the differences between pathologic groups were not significant. Postsurgery, 66% of HME patients had little or no language and worse motor scores in the paretic limbs. By contrast, 40 to 50% of hemi CD children showed near normal language and motor assessments, similar to RE and infarct/ischemia cases. VABS DQ scores showed +5 points or more improvement postsurgery in 57% of patients, and hemi CD (+12.7) and HME (+9.1) children showed the most progress compared with RE (+4.6) and infarct/ischemia (-0.6) cases. Postsurgery VABS DQ scores correlated with seizure duration, seizure control, and presurgery DQ scores.


CONCLUSIONS
The pathologic substrate predicted pre- and postsurgery differences in outcomes, with hemimegalencephaly (but not hemispheric cortical dysplasia) patients doing worse in several domains. Furthermore, shorter seizure durations, seizure control, and greater presurgery developmental quotients predicted better postsurgery developmental quotients in all patients, irrespective of pathology.
Jonas
R
R
Division of Pediatric Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
Nguyen
S
S
Hu
B
B
Asarnow
R F
RF
LoPresti
C
C
Curtiss
S
S
de Bode
S
S
Yudovin
S
S
Shields
W D
WD
Vinters
H V
HV
Mathern
G W
GW
D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016063:Blood Loss, Surgical; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D001921:Brain / Q000002:abnormalities; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000453:epidemiology; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000002:abnormalities; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D004660:Encephalitis / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery; D004828:Epilepsies, Partial / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D038421:Hemispherectomy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009069:Movement Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D010952:Plasma Substitutes / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D011300:Preoperative Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000927:Anticonvulsants; D010952:Plasma Substitutes