ObjectFew data are available concerning efficacy and safety of surgery for catastrophic epilepsy in the first 6 months of life.MethodsThe authors retrospectively analyzed epilepsy surgeries in 15 infants ranging in age from 1.5 to 6 months (median 4 months) and weight from 4 to 10 kg (median 7 kg) who underwent anatomical (4 patients) or functional (7 patients) hemispherectomy, or frontal (1 patient), frontoparietal (2 patients), or parietooccipital (1 patient) resection for life-threatening catastrophic epilepsy due to malformation of cortical development.ResultsNo patient died. Intraoperative complications included an acute ischemic infarction with hemiparesis in our youngest, smallest infant. The most frequent complication was blood loss requiring transfusion, which was encountered in every case. The estimated blood loss was 3–214% (median 63%) of the total blood volume. At maximum follow-up of 6–121 months (median 60 months), 46% were seizure free.ConclusionsEpilepsy surgery may be effective in young infants as it is in older children. However, intraoperative blood loss and risk of permanent postoperative neurological deficits present significant challenges.
Before surgery, this patient's TTM was right-sided, but after subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation, her wound picking was only left-sided. This case suggests that subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation may have a role in unleashing the symptomatology of TTM through an as yet poorly understood mechanism. Furthermore, there is also an implication that the pathophysiology of PD and TTM may be intertwined.
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