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Pediatric functional hemispherectomy: outcome in 92 patients

  • Clinical Article
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Abstract

Background

The revival of epilepsy surgery after the introduction of modern presurgical evaluation procedures has led to an increase in hemispherectomy or hemispherotomy procedures. Since a large part of our pediatric series was done using a newer hemispherotomy technique, we focus mainly on the outcomes after a recently developed hemispherotomy technique (transsylvian keyhole).

Methods

Ninety-six pediatric patients (aged 4 months to 18 years, mean 7.3) were operated on between 1990 and 2009; 92 were available with follow-up.

Results

The most frequent diagnosis was porencephaly in 46 % of all patients. Progressive etiologies were present in 20 % and developmental etiologies in 22 %. At last available outcome (LAO), 85 % of the patients were seizure free (ILAE class 1). Year-to-year outcome was rather stable; usually over 80 % were class 1 for up to 13 years (n = 24). Of 92 assessable patients, 71 were treated with the transsylvian keyhole technique, with 89 % being seizure free. The overall shunt rate was 5.3 % for the whole series and 3 % for the keyhole technique subgroup. Mortality was 1 of 96 patients. Excluding patients with hemimegalencephaly (HME), patients with the shortest duration of epilepsy and the lowest age at seizure onset had the highest rates of seizure freedom. The etiology does influence outcome, with HME patients having the poorest seizure outcome and patients with Sturge-Weber syndrome and porencephaly having excellent seizure control.

Conclusion

Hemispherotomies/functional hemispherectomies are very effective and safe procedures for treating drug-resistant epilepsy with extensive unihemispheric pathology. Etiology and surgery type clearly influence seizure outcome.

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Acknowledgement

We thank the following colleagues from the Department of Neurosurgery responsible for keeping up the epilepsy surgery database over 2 decades: Dr. E. Behrens, Dr. H. Clusmann, Dr. T. Kral and Dr. A. Müller-Erkwoh, and the study nurses P. Süßmann and B. Harzheim. Prof. H. Urbach is acknowledged for his long-term neuroradiological expertise. We are grateful to our epileptology colleagues from various other programs who entrusted us with the surgery of patients evaluated elsewhere.

Patient follow-up was supported by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) partly within the transregional collaborative research consortium SFB400 “Molecular basis of CNS disorders” and SFB TR3 “Mesio-temporal lobe epilepsies.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Bonn University Medical Center, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, 53105, Bonn, Germany

    J. Schramm & M. von Lehe

  2. Department of Epileptology, Bonn University Medical Center, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    S. Kuczaty, R. Sassen & C. E. Elger

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  1. J. Schramm
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Correspondence to M. von Lehe.

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Schramm, J., Kuczaty, S., Sassen, R. et al. Pediatric functional hemispherectomy: outcome in 92 patients. Acta Neurochir 154, 2017–2028 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-012-1481-3

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