Abstracts

Rationale: Primary and metastatic brain tumors may present with seizures. Pediatric brain tumors which are associated with seizures are mainly low grade lesions such as dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumors (DNETs), gangliogliomas, and low grade gliomas. We evaluated seizure outcome following epilepsy surgery in pediatric patients with brain tumors. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 256 pediatric patients who had resective epilepsy surgery between June1994-January 2015 at our center; 68 patients underwent epilepsy surgery related to brain tumors. We studied seizure outcome in 61 patients who had more than 2 years follow up. Results: We evaluated 61 patients; 33 were (54%) girls. Age at the time of seizure onset ranged between 3 days-12 years (mean: 57 months); 26 patients (43%) had daily seizures. Seven patients (11%) had experienced status epilepticus. Age at the time of epilepsy surgery was 107±58,6 months. Forty-two patients (69%) had temporal, 19 patients had extratemporal resections. Pathological results revealed 29 (47%) patients with DNETs, 15 (25%) with low grade glioneuronal tumors not otherwise spesified, 9 (15%) with ganglioglioma, 4 (6.5%) with astrocytoma, , and the remaining 4 (6.5%) were other tumors. Almost half of our patients were diagnosed as DNETs; 25 of 29 patients with DNETs (86%), achieved Engel Class I outcome. Overall 53 of 61 patients (87%) were seizure free. Five patients (8%) had Engel Class II outcome, 2 patients were classified as Class III and one patient as Class IV. Conclusions: As expected, pediatric brain tumors causing epilepsy are mostly located in the temporal lobe. DNET is the leading type of brain tumor in our series. Resective epilepsy surgery for pediatric brain tumors is highly efficacious. Majority of patients with seizures related to pediatric brain tumors achieved seizure freedom following resective epilepsy surgery. Funding: None.