Abstracts

Rationale: The purpose of this study was to evaluate demographics, clinical, neuroimaging and electrophysiological characteristics, and seizure outcome in patients with medically-refractory epilepsy who underwent complete corpus callosotomy at the University of Western Ontario, Epilepsy programme.Methods: Data were obtained for all patients who underwent a corpus callosotomy from the creation of the Epilepsy programme in 1976 until 2006. The study involved 37 patients. Demographics, type of epilepsy, EEG and neuroimaging findings, neuropsychology, and post-surgery outcome were evaluated. Descriptive statistics were done using MS Excel 2003.Results: Information on all 37 patients (12 women and 25 men) was collected. Mean age was 22.2 years (range: 1-49), 27 patients were right-handed, and mean age at seizure onset was 7.9 years (range: 1-27). 16 patients had generalized epilepsy, 5 hemispheric, 5 bifrontal, 5 multifocal, and 6 had frontal and temporal lobe epilepsy. 16 patients had normal MRI. 11 patients underwent evaluation with intracranial electrodes. Concomitantly with the callosotomy, 6 patients underwent frontal and 2 fronto-temporal resections, while 3 patients had hemispherectomies. 5 patients became seizure free, and continue to do so after a median follow up of 24 months (range 12-36).Conclusions: Corpus callosotomy is an effective treatment for treatment of medically-refractory epilepsy in patients of all ages.