Pediatric temporal low-grade glial tumors: Epilepsy outcome following resection in 48 children

Purpose This paper summarizes our experience with surgical treatment of pediatric low-grade glial temporal lobe tumors focusing on the long-term outcome of seizures and identifying factors associated with seizure control and failure. Methods We reviewed all medical records of pediatric patients that underwent temporal lobe surgery due to seizures at our institution between 1997 and 2009. Only patients with temporal lobe tumors were included in this series. The files were retrospectively reviewed for seizure history. All children had undergone pre- and postoperative evaluation, neurological examination, EEG, and MRI. Results The cohort includes 48 children with mean followup time of 5.15 years (1-12 years). The mean age at surgery was 8.2 years (1-18.1) and the mean seizure duration until surgery was 2.6 years. All lesions in the cohort were low-grade tumors; pilocytic astrocytoma was the most common (41%). Eighty-three percent of the patients were classified as Engel class I following surgery. There was no correlation between Engel score and the preoperative epilepsy duration, age of seizure onset or type of seizures, and pathology. The surgical complication rate was 4.1% (2/48). Conclusions Surgical treatment for seizure control in children and adolescents with low-grade temporal tumors provides excellent long-term results.