Surgery Reduces Epileptic Seizures

Children with epilepsy who underwent surgical treatment showed significant improvements on overall cognitive development and many were left seizure-free, according to a new study published in the March 29, 2005, online edition of Epilepsy.

Researchers followed children aged three to seven years to see how they developed intellectually in the first few years following epilepsy surgery. Although children with severe epilepsy are at high risk for significant mental handicaps, the results showed that those children who became seizure-free after surgery were able to develop better and may actually gain some abilities they did not have before the surgery.

"The questions answered in our study have a significant everyday value for counseling parents whether their child should undergo epilepsy surgery,” said corresponding author Ingrid Tuxhorn, M.D., who is conducting long-term quality-of-life studies on epilepsy at the Bethel Epilepsy Center (Bielefeld, Germany). Twelve months after the surgery, 82% of the children showed stable improvements in development, and three children showed gains of greater than 15 points in their intelligence quotient (IQ). Gains in IQ were only observed in seizure-free children.

"This study on the long-term cognitive outcome of preschool children who had epilepsy surgery shows that children with a shorter duration of epilepsy, more localized etiologies, and a seizure-free outcome have the best chance for improving their cognitive function two to three years after a successful operation,” observed Dr. Tuxhorn. "The question [now] is to provide data to determine ideal timing of surgical treatment.” Dr. Tuxhorn and co-author Hedwig Freitag, M.D., are editors of a book on pediatric epilepsy syndromes and their surgical treatment.