Authors :
Presenting Author: John McLaren, MD – Boston Children's Hospital
William Munoz, MD, PhD – MGH
Hunki Kwon, PhD – Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Johns Hopkins University
Alexandra Geffrey, MD – Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Steven Stufflebeam, MD – A. A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging
Camilo Cobos, MD – MGH
Britt Emerton, PhD – MGH
Kristopher Kahle, MD, PhD – Massachusetts General Hospital
Mark Richardson, MD, PhD – Massachusetts General Hospital
Catherine Chu, MD, MSC – Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Johns Hopkins University
Rationale:
Expanded indications, diagnostic tools, and treatment options have transformed the landscape of modern pediatric epilepsy surgery. We aimed to evaluate access, indications, treatment, and outcomes for children treated in a contemporary pediatric epilepsy surgery program.Methods:
We evaluated data from 100 consecutive surgical procedures from 62 patients treated in our pediatric epilepsy program. Data collected included demographics, epilepsy characteristics, diagnostics, surgical procedures, seizure outcomes, adverse events, and anti-seizure medication changes at 12 months post-operatively. Group comparisons were performed using χ², ANOVA, and t-tests with multiple comparison corrections.
Results:
Patients largely matched state and regional demographics, except for a larger proportion of Hispanic children treated compared to state demographics (27% vs. 10%, p < 0.01). Epilepsy types included unifocal (48%), multifocal (24%), generalized (23%), and combined (5%). Approximately 67% had lesional epilepsy, 33% had non-lesional epilepsy, and 27% had an epileptic encephalopathy.