• Miguel Angel Lopez-Gonzalez, Jorge Alvaro Gonzalez-Martinez, Lara Jehi, Prakash Kotagal, Ann Warbel, and William Bingaman.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio 44195, USA. lopezm5@ccf.org
• Neurosurgery. 2012 Mar 1;70(3):684-92.

BackgroundThere is still some reluctance to refer pediatric patients for epilepsy surgery, despite evidence of success in retrospective series.ObjectiveTo describe surgical experience and long-term outcome in pediatric temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) at a single institution.MethodsRetrospective review of pediatric (<18-years-old) TLE patients who underwent surgery between November 1996 and December 2006 at Cleveland Clinic Epilepsy Center. Cox proportional hazard modeling was used to assess outcome predictors.ResultsOne hundred thirty pediatric patients met study criteria. Mean time between seizure onset and surgery was 6.3 years. Invasive evaluation was used in 32 patients (24.5%). Hippocampal sclerosis was present in 70 patients (53.8%), either alone or associated in dual pathology. The complication rate was 7%. The seizure-freedom rates at 1, 2, 5, and 12 years were 76%, 72%, 54%, and 41%, respectively (Kaplan-Meier). With the use of the Engel outcome classification, 98 (75.3%) patients were class I, 11 (8.5%) class II, 9 (7%) class III, and 12 (9.2%) were class IV at last follow-up. Only 4 (3.1%) patients underwent reoperations. Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) were discontinued in 36 patients (28.3%) in a mean period of 18 months (SD ± 17 months; range, 6-102 months). Although left-sided resection, lower number of preoperative AED trials (≤ 4), and tumor pathology correlated with favorable seizure outcomes, extensive surgical resection remained the only significant outcome predictor after multivariate analysis (P = .007; HR = 0.13 [95% confidence interval 0.007-0.64]).ConclusionCareful selection of surgical candidates by multidisciplinary evaluations is required. Long-term seizure control is achieved successfully with acceptable low complication rates.

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