• Catarina Abraão Guimarães, Elisabete A P Souza, Maria Augusta Montenegro, Fernando Cendes, and Marilisa M Guerreiro.
• Departamento de Neurologia, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brasil.
• Arq Neuropsiquiatr. 2003 Sep 1;61(3B):786-92.

PurposeTo perform neuropsychological and quality of life assessments before and after epilepsy surgery in children; to correlate these parameters with clinical findings.MethodNine children with refractory epilepsy were evaluated before and six months after the surgical treatment with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery and quality of life questionnaire. Children had variable etiologies and surgical procedures.ResultsIQ changes did not occur; two children with temporal lobe epilepsy due to tumor had important behavior impairment after surgery despite complete seizure control; best neuropsychological improvement was seen in the child who had Rasmussen's encephalitis and underwent hemispherectomy. Social aspects, drug side effects, seizure perception and the overall level of quality of life improved after surgery.ConclusionQuality of life improvement was clearly correlated with seizure control; nevertheless, neuropsychological improvement depended on several factors, such as etiology, type of epilepsy and surgery.

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