Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery: Lessons and Challenges

Pediatric epilepsy surgery has come of age, from being considered as a last resort in medically refractory focal epilepsy, after failure of numerous antiepileptic drug trials spanning many years, to a preferred treatment option in carefully selected candidates. There have been certain key developments that have catalyzed this change. First, we are able to predict medical intractability earlier during the course of epilepsy. Second, improved understanding of how the maturing brain recovers from neurologic insults has led to earlier consideration of surgical intervention during a window of developmental plasticity. Finally, improved diagnostic and surgical capabilities now enable us to identify more candidates suitable for surgery. At the same time, as the surgical frontier has been rapidly pushed to new horizons, we have also unearthed new challenges. In this review, several pediatric epilepsy syndromes are discussed to highlight these important developments.