Neuropsychological outcome following focal cortical removal for intractable epilepsy in children

In children, surgery for epilepsy has been recognized as a viable treatment option since publication of S. Davidson and M.A. Falconer's outcome study in 1975 [Lancet North Am Ed 5:1260-3], which demonstrated that medical outcome of children who underwent anterior temporal lobectomy paralleled that of adults. Pediatric surgical programs and the literature on medical outcome have grown considerably since that time, with surgery being offered to children with temporal but also extratemporal epilepsy foci. Comparatively little work has been conducted in the area of neuropsychological outcome. This article outlines differences in adult and pediatric outcome studies, reviews the literature on the intellectual and memory outcome in children, and discusses shortcomings of the pediatric outcome research conducted to date.