Abstracts

Rationale: Medically refractile epilepsy is disproportionally represented in children. As greater experience has accumulated it has become increasingly evident that medically refractile epilepsy is largely a disease of defineable surgically relevent substrates such as cortical dysplasias, perinatal infarcts and low grade hamartomatous neoplasms. For carefully selected patients surgery offers the greatest hope for freedom from seizures. As such it is important that training in pediatric epilepsy surgery remain a core component to accredited pediatric neurosurgical training programs. This report summarizes current epilpesy surgery data from the accredited pediatric neurosurgery training programs. Methods: The Accreditation Council for Pediatric Neurosurgery Fellowships is the agency tasked with oversight and accreditation of pediatric neurosurgery training programs in North America. There are 24 currently accredited fellowship programs in pediatric neurosurgery in North America. Operative statistics were self reported by each program for the calendar year 2006. Fourteen of the twenty four programs provided summary data.Results: Thirteen of the fourteen programs reported some epilepsy surgery performed in children as part of the fellowship training program. The total number of craniotomies ranged from 1 to 56 with mean=29 and median=31. Twelve programs reported implantation of Vagus Nerve Stimulators. The average number of VNS implants in accredited pediatric neurosurgery training programs was 19 and the median number was 15. Conclusions: Although most accredited fellowship programs in pediatric neurosurgery are reporting epilepsy surgery as an integral part of their program there remains much room for growth in the incorporation of pediatric epilepsy surgery in the training of contemporary pediatric neurosurgeons.