Abstracts

Rationale: Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, the most common type of human epilepsy due to hippocampal sclerosis or gliosis, often required surgical intervention for its pharmacoresistant and favorable outcomes after surgery. Minimally invasive surgical techniques, such as stereotactic radiofrequency ablation, laser-induced thermal therapy, and radiofrequency thermocoagulation (RF-TC), were all aimed at achieving seizure freedom via causing permanent lesions by heating the epileptogenic foci. Methods: Here we present 2 cases with seizure foci from either mesiotemporal region, who experience the limited-size stereotactic RF-TC over the hippocampus. Intraoperative electroencephalographic recording directly from depth electrodes into the hippocampus, aura sensation provoking during low-temperature test, and therapeutic coagulation performing via radionics radiofrequency leads, and are all unique features in this report. Results: There are no seizure attacks, no significant postoperative adverse effects, or memory impairments noted in the follow-up periods. Compared with other reports applying RF-TC technique, our cases demonstrate a one-step minimally destructive surgery, which reduces hippocampus volume loss, shortens lengths of hospitalization stay, decrease postoperative infection occurrences, and achieves good outcomes for epilepsy control. Conclusions: We demonstrated the safety and efficacy of this minimally invasive technique, which would warrant further larger case series to advance our experiences. Funding: We did not receive any funding support for the current study.