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Epilepsy Professional

Paediatric surgery and a whole new IQ

A recent UK study suggests that paediatric temporal lobe surgery can have a positive effect on a child’s IQ in the long term. Prof J Helen Cross and Dr Torsten Baldeweg explain how this paves the way for further research into long-term outcomes.

Great Ormond Street Hospital is one of the largest children’s epilepsy surgery centres in Europe. As such, it is well placed to build an evidence base for more effective epilepsy surgery for children whose condition does not respond to medication. A study by researchers at the hospital and at the UCL Institute of Child Health was recently published in Neurology. This study suggests that surgery to remove the brain lesions responsible for triggering temporal lobe seizures can also have a positive effect on IQ.

AEDs in utero: further developments?

Rebecca Bromley,Amanda Wood and Gus Baker examine prenatal exposure to anti-epileptic drugs and the neurodevelopmental consequences. They ask: what are they and what do we think we can do about them?

The consequences of prenatal exposure to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) on the cognitive or  behavioural functioning of the child are only now becoming apparent. Such associations with AED use means that this information needs to be integrated into counselling for women with epilepsy. It also needs to be added into the risk:benefit analysis when deciding on treatments.

And much more in the December 2011 issue of Epilepsy Professional

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