Epilepsy surgery for pediatric low-grade gliomas of the cerebral hemispheres: neurosurgical considerations and outcomes

Abstract

Introduction: Pediatric low-grade tumors are found in roughly 1-3 % of patients with childhood epilepsy; seizures associated with these tumors are often medically refractory and often present a significant morbidity, greater than the presence of the tumor itself.

Discussion: The unique morbidity of the seizures often requires an epilepsy surgical approach over a standard oncologic resection to achieve a reduction in morbidity for the child. Multiple quality-of-life studies have shown that unless a patient is seizure-free, they remain disabled throughout their life; the best way to achieve this in our patient population is with a multidisciplinary team approach with treatment goals focusing primarily on the epilepsy.

Conclusion: In those patients treated with gross total resection, roughly 80 % will have an Engel class I outcome and 90 % will achieve some reduction in seizure frequency with a significant improvement in quality of life.

Keywords: Epilepsy; Pediatric low-grade gliomas; Seizures.