Temporal lobe resections in children.
Often, seizures in childhood are intractable to medical therapy. Intractable seizures and prolonged anticonvulsant medication can adversely affect intellectual development and psychosocial maturation in children. Temporal lobe resections for complex partial seizures and focal epilepsy in children can be performed with minimal morbidity. The higher morbidity lies with prolonged observation of these children with intractable seizures. The final result of surgical treatment shows that children can significantly benefit from an early developmental period without anticonvulsant medication or intractable seizures with improvements in both IQ and behavioral interactions. With improvements in neuroimaging techniques and evaluation procedures, more children can be identified who might benefit from a resective procedure. It is thus advocated that early evaluation and surgical intervention be performed to gain improvement in seizure control and psychosocial development.