title: Is reoperation an option for patients with temporal lobe epilepsy after failure of surgery?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Epilepsy surgery is the most efficacious therapeutic modality for patients with medically refractory focal epilepsies, but surgical failures remain a challenge to the epilepsy treatment team. The aim of present study was to evaluate the postoperative outcome of patients who underwent reoperation after a failed epilepsy surgery on the temporal lobe.
  
  
  METHODS
  We systematically analyzed the results of comprehensive preoperative evaluations before the first surgery, and before and after reoperation in 17 patients with drug resistant temporal lobe epilepsies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 13 of 17 patients (76.5%) improved after reoperation: five patients (29.4%) were completely seizure free after reoperation (median duration 60months, range 12-72); six patients (35.3%) were seizure free at least 12month before observation points (median duration 120.5months, range 35-155) and two patients (11.8%) had a decrease in seizure frequency. Four patients (23.5%) remained unchanged with respect to seizure frequency and severity. There was no correlation between the improvement in seizure outcome after reoperation and other clinical data except of the history of traumatic brain injury (TBI). The patients who had no history of TBI improved after reoperation, compared to patients with TBI (p=0.044). The postoperative seizure outcome of patients with incongruent Video-EEG results before the first surgery (p=0.116) and before reoperation (p=0.622) was not poorer compared to patients with congruent Video-EEG results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Reoperation can considerably improve the operative outcome of the first failed epilepsy surgery in patients with drug resistant temporal lobe epilepsies. Epilepsy centres should be encouraged to report the results of failed epilepsy surgeries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical University Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Rebekka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aull-Watschinger
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Moser
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Czech
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Baumgartner
authors.forename: Sivlia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bonelli-Nauer
authors.forename: Ekaterina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pataraia
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000523:psychology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D019635:Neurosurgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D012086:Reoperation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; D017211:Treatment Failure; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult