• Koji Iida, Kota Kagawa, Masaya Katagiri, Go Seyama, Akira Hashizume, Masaru Abiko, Junko Katayama, Hiroharu Suzuki, Kaoru Kurisu, and Hiroshi Otsubo.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan; Epilepsy Center, Hiroshima University Hospital, Hiroshima, Japan. Electronic address: iidak@hiroshima-u.ac.jp.
• World Neurosurg. 2019 Dec 1; 132: e759-e765.

ObjectiveTo determine postoperative long-term changes of hippocampal volume (HV) correlating with cognitive functions in patients who underwent surgery for hippocampal sclerosis with postoperative freedom from seizures.MethodsWe studied 1.5T magnetic resonance imaging before and after surgery in 24 patients (mean ± SD age, 36.9 ± 11.0 years) with hippocampal sclerosis. We performed serial magnetic resonance imaging at 6 months to 1 year, 1-2 years, 2-3 years, and 3-5 years postoperatively. We compared HVs of 24 patients with HVs of 14 age-matched control subjects. We analyzed correlations between consecutive HVs and seizure duration and age at surgery. We compared consecutive changes in HVs between dominant and nondominant hemispheres with concurrent cognitive functions.ResultsPreoperative HVs of unresected contralateral hippocampus were significantly smaller than HVs of control subjects (P < 0.01). Unresected contralateral HV changes compared with preoperative HVs were -3.6% ± 6.9%, -2.3% ± 8.5%, -3.6% ± 10.2% (P < 0.05), and -5.0% ± 9.5% (P < 0.05) at consecutive postoperative periods. Largest change in HVs at 3-5 years was significantly correlated with older age at surgery (P < 0.05). Unresected contralateral dominant 14 HVs remained consistently smaller than nondominant 10 HVs up to 5 years with statistical significance (P < 0.05). Verbal memory was preserved in 14 patients with unresected contralateral smaller dominant hippocampus.ConclusionsIn seizure-free patients after hippocampal sclerosis resection , unresected contralateral HV significantly declined with older age at surgery. Visual memory was preserved regardless of side and volume loss. Despite significantly reduced HVs, verbal memory was preserved with the unresected contralateral dominant hippocampus. Earlier surgical intervention may have lower potential risk for memory decline secondary to postoperative HV loss.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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