Surgical treatment of epilepsy

Children with seizures that are uncontrolled by medical treatment  or are disabling  are possible surgical candidates. This includes patients with stereotyped or lateralized seizures or other evidence of focality, that cannot be definitely attributed to idiopathic partial epilepsies or in whom the MRI reveals a lesion amenable to surgical removal.
Developmental arrest or progressive disturbances in cognitive function, behavior, and psychiatric state (epileptic encephalopathy) are common in pediatric epilepsy surgery patients and a consensus
has been reached among the experts that early surgical intervention is critical to prevent developmental arrest/regression. .
 
Surgical syndromes and etiologies are more diverse in children than in adults and recognized etiologies and syndromes more common in children include the following: