Outcome and long term follow-up after corpus callosotomy in childhood onset intractable epilepsy.
BACKGROUND
Epilepsy surgery is a standard of care in the treatment of medically intractable epilepsy. Twenty five percent of patients with intractable epilepsy in childhood can be candidates for epilepsy surgery. Corpus callosotomy is a surgical treatment option for patients with potentially injurious drop attacks and disabling generalized seizures. Postoperative improvement of cognition and speech are important gains after epilepsy surgery particularly during childhood. The aim of this study is to evaluate the outcome of corpus callosotomy for the treatment of childhood onset medically intractable epilepsy in a developing pediatric epilepsy surgery center.


METHODS
We report 16 patients who underwent two thirds anterior corpus callosotomy for treatment of refractory seizures in childhood.


RESULTS
All patients had drop attacks or multiple types of seizures, yet some showed focal onset with secondary generalization on electroencephalogram (EEG). One patient was seizure free (class 1 outcome), five had class 2A outcome, five had class 2B outcome, and five had class 3 outcome. Overall 11/16 (69%) of our patients improved significantly after anterior callosotomy.


CONCLUSIONS
Corpus callosotomy remains to be a fairly good choice of surgical treatment for childhood onset medically intractable epilepsy in selected patients.
Division of Pediatrics, Section of Pediatric Neurology, Hacettepe University Medical Faculty, Ihsan Doğramaci Children's Hospital, 06100, Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey.
Güzide
G
Turanli
Dilek
D
Yalnizoğlu
Demet
D
Genç-Açikgöz
Nejat
N
Akalan
Meral
M
Topçu
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000601:surgery*; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011612:Psychosurgery / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome