Amygdalohippocampectomy may offer hope for select patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy according to a review published in Brain Sciences by Warren Boling, MD, a neurosurgeon at Loma Linda University Health.
- Patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy that does not respond to medical therapy may experience freedom from their seizures by means of resection surgery.
- Two surgical approaches worth considering in this patient population are standard anterior temporal removal and selective amygdalohippocampectomy.
- The advantage of selective amygdalohippocampectomy is the potential to remove the seizure focal point, thus avoiding the removal of portions of the temporary lobe that are not actually part of the epileptogenic zone.
- Selective amygdalohippocampectomy (SAH), if performed using a minimally access approach, also has the advantage of allowing patients to recover more quickly.
- Evidence also suggests that SAH may provide cognitive benefits that standard temporal resections do not.
Boling WW. Surgical Considerations of Intractable Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. Brain Sciences. 2018;8:35. doi:10.3390/brainsci8020035.
