The Results of One stage Total Callosotomy in Pediatric Epilepsy

Purpose: In the pediatric patients who have medically intractable epilepsy the callosotomy is useful to prevent the propagation of seizure from one hemisphere to the other. The indications of callosotomy are drop attack, life threatening primarily or secondarily generalized seizure, medically refractory mixed seizure types such as Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. In addition, the retarded children are not contraindicated. The anterior callosotomy is used to perform to control medically intractable epilepsy which is believed to have some advantages to total callosotomy. But, we propose that the anterior callosotomy does not seem to be superior to total callosotomy for the prevention of the propagation of seizure or complication. We describe a series of 21 patients with medically intractable epilepsy who underwent total callosotomy in one stage. Methods: The diagnoses in these patients included Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, atonic seizure, infantile hemiplegia, and no obvious solitary seizure focus on chronic video/EEG monitoring to characterize seizures, electrographic activity, and postictal behaviors. Preoperatively 16 patients suffered from disabling drop attacks or intense head drop seizures which caused frequent physical injuries. Other types of seizures are 12 generalized tonic-clonic seizures, 7 complex partial seizures, 1 absence seizure, and 7 myoclonic seizures. Male:Female=14:7, Age: 2-22 years (Mean: 9.4 years). The follow-up period ranged from 0.8 to 3.8 years (median 2.4 years). Seizure outcome, parental assessment of daily function, and parental satisfaction with outcome were assessed postoperatively. Results: Drop attacks disappeared completely during the entire follow-up period in 13 patients and decreased to less than 10% of baseline in five. The corpus callosum of the one patient were not completely sectioned in Diffusion Tensor Image, tractography. Other types of seizures resolved completely in 14 patients and decreased in 7. 2 patients experienced a transient disconnection syndrome, but completely resolved within four weeks. Overall daily function improved and parents were satisfied with the surgical outcome in all patients except three who experienced recurrent of drop attacks after operation. There was no sign of significant and persistent neurological deficits in any case. Conclusion: Results of total callosotomy in patients with medically intractable epilepsy with diffuse epileptic foci were favorable in most cases. The procedure was particularly effective against drop attacks causing physical injuries and impaired quality of life in these patients.ope