Relationship between presurgical memory performance on the Wechsler Memory Scale-III and memory change following temporal resection for treatment of intractable epilepsy

Previous research demonstrated a relationship between preoperative memory measured by the Wechsler Memory Scale—Revised (WMS-R) and postsurgical memory change in patients who underwent left (LATL), but not right (RATL) anterior temporal lobectomy. The current study replicated previous efforts using the Wechsler Memory Scale–Third Edition (WMS-III) in a larger sample. The WMS-III was administered to 161 patients with medically intractable epilepsy prior to and ∼6 months following LATL or RATL. Correlations between presurgical memory on WMS-III indices and memory change following surgery were calculated for each group. Significant negative relationships were found between pre- and postsurgical memory scores in patients who underwent LATL on all WMS-III measures (r = −0.31 to −0.43). Significant negative correlations were observed in patients who underwent RATL only on visual memory measures (r = −0.24 to −0.44). Findings support previous conclusions using the WMS-R showing that patients who undergo LATL with higher presurgical memory ability are at greater risk for memory decline following temporal resection than patients with lower presurgical memory scores.