Abstracts

Tumor-related refractory epilepsy encompasses a heterogeneous group of temporal epilepsies with different pathological substrates and postoperative seizure outcomes. The aim of this study is to describe the clinical and surgical aspects of a group of patients suffering from drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and neoplasic lesion evaluated on MRI. This study was based on data prospectivelly collected. Seizure outcomes and factors affecting seizure outcomes are discussed. Evaluation included clinical data, EEG findings, structural scans, pathological diagnosis and post-surgical follow-up. Twenty one patients were selected with TLE and temporal neoplasic lesions. Surgical pathology revealed ganglioglioma in 43%, pilocytic astrocytoma in 24%, dysembrioplastic neuroepithelial tumor in 19% and ganglioneuroma in 14%. Mean follow-up time was 22 months and outcome was evaluated according to Engel[acute]s classification: 76,2% were classified in class I and 23,8% in II and III. There were no differences related to clinical characteristics or duration of follow-up in patients seizure-free or not. All patients had the MRI characteristics compared to pathological diagnosis and specific histological characteristics of the tumor were not discernible by MRI. Our results emphasize that in patients with tumoral TLE, with refractory seizures, surgery offers potencial for cure of epelepsy in the majority.