Factors influencing surgical outcome in patients with focal cortical dysplasia

Introduction: Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) is a common cause of pharmaco-resistant epilepsy in childhood and aduldhood. Determination of prognostic factors for epilepsy surgery is important when counselling these patients. Methods: 120 patients with histologically proven focal cortical dysplasia were retrospectively analysed. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to asses the prognostic importance of the clinical variables duration of epilepsy, age at epilepsy surgery, age at epilepsy onset, location of FCD, histology of FCD. Results: Longer duration of epilepsy, but not location or histological subtype of the FCD significantly reduced or influenced the change of becoming seizure-free after epilepsy surgery. This effect was independent of the duration of follow-up. Conclusion: This finding strongly suggests early consideration of epilepsy surgery in patients with FCD.