[Indications and outcomes of epilepsy surgery in children]
1Departamento de Neurología, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canadá. naranjosell@yahoo.ca
Insights
Epilepsy surgery offers significant seizure reduction for children with drug-resistant epilepsy. Advanced diagnostics improve candidate selection, leading to better outcomes and improved quality of life.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Neurology
- Neurosurgery
- Epileptology
Context:
- Pharmaco-resistant epilepsy affects 25% of children with epilepsy.
- Epilepsy surgery is a viable treatment option for refractory cases.
- Recent advancements enhance surgical candidate identification and treatment efficacy.
Purpose:
- To review current indications and outcomes for pediatric epilepsy surgery.
- To highlight the role of advanced neuroimaging and neurophysiological data.
- To assess the effectiveness of surgical interventions in pediatric epilepsy.
Summary:
- Advanced diagnostics like magnetoencephalography and high-resolution MRI improve patient selection for epilepsy surgery.
- Temporal lobe resections achieve over 90% seizure reduction in 85% of pediatric cases.
- Extratemporal epilepsy surgery presents unique challenges in specialized pediatric centers.
Impact:
- Epilepsy surgery can be successful even without visible MRI lesions.
- Partial seizure reduction significantly enhances patient and family quality of life.
- Surgical outcomes can potentiate the effectiveness of other non-responsive therapies.
Introduction:
One in every four children who suffer epilepsy will continue to seize despite all the current arsenal of anticonvulsant medications. Epilepsy surgery can be an effective treatment for many cases of pharmaco-resistant epilepsy.
Aim:
To review some of the most recent data regarding indication and results for epilepsy surgery in children.
Development:
New analysis of neurophysiological data such as magnetoencephalography, dipole analysis and high frequency oscillations, plus functional neuroimaging and higher resolution MRI, have improved the prompt referral of potential candidates for surgery. An adequate selection of the surgical candidates will be fundamental in obtaining positive outcomes. Children, just like adults, can achieve seizure freedom or more than 90% seizure reduction in 85% of the cases of temporal lobe resections. Extratemporal epilepsy surgery is more challenging, and presents frequently in epilepsy surgery centres specialized in pediatric care.
Conclusion:
It is not mandatory for a patient to have an structural lesion evident on MRI in order to be considered a candidate for epilepsy surgery. In many cases a partial reduction of seizure activity can significantly improve the patient's and family's quality of life, and can have a sinergistic effect with other therapies which were no effective before surgery.
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