Trends in pediatric epilepsy surgery in Europe between 2008 and 2015: Country-, center-, and age-specific variation

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To profile European trends in pediatric epilepsy surgery (<16 years of age) between 2008 and 2015.

METHODS: We collected information on volumes and types of surgery, pathology, and seizure outcome from 20 recognized epilepsy surgery reference centers in 10 European countries.

RESULTS: We analyzed retrospective aggregate data on 1859 operations. The proportion of surgeries significantly increased over time (P < .0001). Engel class I outcome was achieved in 69.3% of children, with no significant improvement between 2008 and 2015. The proportion of histopathological findings consistent with glial scars significantly increased between the ages of 7 and 16 years (P for trend = .0033), whereas that of the remaining pathologies did not vary across ages. A significant increase in unilobar extratemporal surgeries (P for trend = .0047) and a significant decrease in unilobar temporal surgeries (P for trend = .0030) were observed between 2008 and 2015. Conversely, the proportion of multilobar surgeries and unrevealing magnetic resonance imaging cases remained unchanged. Invasive investigations significantly increased, especially stereo-electroencephalography. We found different trends comparing centers starting their activity in the 1990s to those whose programs were developed in the past decade. Multivariate analysis revealed a significant variability of the proportion of the different pathologies and surgical approaches across countries, centers, and age groups between 2008 and 2015.

SIGNIFICANCE: Between 2008 and 2015, we observed a significant increase in the volume of pediatric epilepsy surgeries, stability in the proportion of Engel class I outcomes, and a modest increment in complexity of the procedures.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)216-227
Number of pages12
JournalEpilepsia
Volume61
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2020

Keywords

  • children
  • epilepsy surgery
  • histopathology
  • outcome
  • survey
  • Seizures/epidemiology
  • Age Factors
  • Humans
  • Child, Preschool
  • Temporal Lobe/diagnostic imaging
  • Male
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Electroencephalography
  • Epilepsy/epidemiology
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Europe/epidemiology
  • Neurosurgery/statistics & numerical data
  • Adolescent
  • Female
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Child
  • Neurosurgical Procedures/statistics & numerical data

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