title: Early hemispherectomy in catastrophic epilepsy: a neuro-cognitive and epileptic long-term follow-up.
abstract: The authors report their experience about a neuro-cognitive and epileptic long-term follow-up of children with catastrophic epilepsy treated with hemispherectomy in the first 5 years of life. Nineteen children with resistant epilepsy that significantly interfered with their neuro-cognitive development underwent hemispherectomy within 5 years of life (mean: 2 years, 3 months; range: 5 months to 5 years). All patients were assessed before surgery and after, at least at the end of the follow-up (mean: 6 years and 6 months; range: 2-11 years and 2 months) with a full clinical examination including motor ability and functional status evaluation as well as behaviour observation, neuroimaging and an ictal/interictal prolonged scalp video-EEG. A seizure-free outcome was obtained in 73.7% of patients. Gross motility generally improved and cognitive competence did not worsen, with an evident progress in two cases. Consistently with previous reports, evolution was worse in cortical dysplasia than in progressive or acquired vascular cerebropathies. The excellent epileptic outcome and the lack of developmental deterioration in comparison with other more aged series seem to suggest a possible better evolution in earlier surgery treatment. To confirm this suggestion, however, further experience with larger series is needed.
authors: Child Neurology and Psychiatry, Catholic University, Rome, Italy.
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Lettori
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Battaglia
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Sacco
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Veredice
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Chieffo
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Massimi
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Tartaglione
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Chiricozzi
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Staccioli
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Mittica
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Di Rocco
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Guzzetta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D038421:Hemispherectomy / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014888:Wechsler Scales