Systematic review and network meta-analysis of resective surgery for mesial temporal lobe epilepsy

To evaluate the effectiveness of anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) versus selective amygdalohippocampectomy (SAH) on seizure-free outcome in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, using both direct and indirect evidence from the literature.

MEDLINE, Embase and Cochrane databases were searched for original research articles and systematic reviews comparing ATL versus SAH, and ATL or SAH versus medical management (MM). The outcome was seizure freedom at 12 months of follow-up or longer. Direct pairwise meta-analyses were conducted, followed by a random-effect Bayesian network meta-analysis (NMA) combining direct and indirect evidence.

Twenty-eight articles were included (18 compared ATL vs SAH, 1 compared ATL vs SAH vs MM, 8 compared ATL vs MM, and 1 compared SAH vs MM). Direct pairwise meta-analyses showed no significant differences in seizure-free outcome of ATL versus SAH (OR 1.14, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.39; p=0.201), but the odds of seizure-free outcome were higher for ATL versus MM (OR 29.16, 95% CI 10.44 to 81.50; p<0.00001), and SAH versus MM (OR 28.42, 95% CI 10.17 to 79.39; p<0.00001). NMA also showed that the odds of seizure-free outcome were no different in ATL versus SAH (OR 1.15, 95% credible interval (CrI) 0.84-1.15), but higher for ATL versus MM (OR 27.22, 95% CrI 15.38-27.22), and SAH versus MM (OR 23.57, 95% CrI 12.67-23.57). There were no significant differences between direct and indirect comparisons (all p>0.05).

Direct evidence, indirect evidence and NMA did not identify a difference in seizure-free outcome of ATL versus SAH.