Predictors of outcome of anterior temporal lobectomy for intractable epilepsy: a multivariate study

To identify presurgical and postsurgical factors that are independently predictive of the outcome of anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) for intractable epilepsy.

There have been reports of prognostic factors in epilepsy surgery, but little is known about factors that independently predict outcome of ATL.

We studied 175 consecutive ATL patients who had at least 2 years of postsurgical follow-up. Significant factors on univariate analyses were subjected to stepwise logistic regression analysis.

On univariate analyses, two presurgical conditions were significantly associated with excellent seizure control at last follow-up: (1) unilateral hippocampal formation atrophy as detected on MRI and (2) all scalp interictal epileptiform discharges concordant with the location of ictal onset (p < 0.05). Three postsurgical factors that occurred during the first year were associated with excellent seizure outcome: the absence of interictal epileptiform discharges at 3 months, complete seizure control, and having only nondisabling seizures for those who did not become seizure free. Logistic regression analysis revealed the following to be independently predictive of excellent seizure control: MRI-detected unilateral hippocampal formation atrophy, concordant interictal epileptiform discharges, complete seizure control during the first postsurgical year, and having only nondisabling seizures during the first postsurgical year for those who did not become seizure free.

Presurgical identification of unilateral hippocampal formation atrophy, or of interictal epileptiform discharges that are all concordant with the location of ictal onset, predict excellent outcome of ATL. However, the probability of excellent outcome is highest (94%) when both factors are present.