title: Verbal memory and literacy outcomes one year after pediatric temporal lobectomy: a retrospective cohort study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In children with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), temporal lobectomy (TL) is a treatment of choice for those children with seizure that are difficult to control with medication. Semantic memory is dependent on functional integrity of the temporal lobes and is thought to be critical for development of literacy skills. However, little is known about semantic memory and literacy outcomes post-TL in children.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this retrospective cohort study, 40 children with TLE were administered tests of memory and literacy pre-TL and 1year post-TL in one hospital between 1996 and 2011.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One year post-TL, 60% of the children became seizure-free. A significant decline was found in one aspect of semantic memory (naming) in children who underwent left TL. In addition, a significant drop was also evident in one aspect of literacy (reading accuracy), irrespective of the side of surgery. These declines were related neither to each other nor to epilepsy variables including seizure outcome.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the largest pediatric outcome study of memory and literacy skills to date and shows that TL is associated with a risk of a mild drop in specific aspects of semantic memory (naming, following left TL) and reading accuracy, while other areas of memory and literacy remain unchanged.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders, Australia. Electronic address: suncica.lah@sydney.edu.au.
authors.forename: Suncica
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lah
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders, Australia; Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada; Neurosciences and Mental Health Program, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada. Electronic address: marylou.smith@utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Mary Lou
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D038481:Anterior Temporal Lobectomy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000209:etiology*; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011932:Reading; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Child epilepsy surgery; Episodic memory; Reading; Semantic memory; Spelling; Temporal lobe epilepsy