Avaliação neuropsicologica e de qualidade de vida em crianças submetidas a cirurgia para epilepsia

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2002

RESUMO

Some children with epilepsy do not obtain control with antiepileptic drug treatment and surgical treatment is a possibility. The aim of the surgery is to alleviate seizures without provoking further intolerable neurological damage and improve quality of life of the patient and family. To achieve this goal, the pre-surgical evaluation should be comprehensive, including neuropsychological and quality of life assessments. Neuropsychological testing complements medical findings helping to localize or lateralize the lesion, evaluate previous functional deficits and monitor surgical outcome. Quality of life assessment allows understanding the impact of epilepsy in child and family s lives. It may be a parameter to compare with post-surgical outcome as well. The objectives of the present study were: to evaluate the effect of surgery in a short-term follow-up; to assess neuropsychological and quality of life data in pre and post-surgical conditions; to verify the interaction between both assessments; and, to correlate clinical findings with these parameters. Nine children were investigated through a comprehensive neurosychological battery and quality of life questionnaire seven to thirty days before surgery and six months after the surgical procedure. The results showed that: IQ changes did not occur; two children with left temporal lobe epilepsy had low language performance ; the child that showed most improvement in the neuropsychological assessment and in quality of life after surgery was the one Rasmussen s encephalitis at the left cerebral hemisphere whose the progression ot the disease was very fast betore surgery ; two children with tumor had important behavior modification after surgery, despite complete seizure control; social and environmental aspects, medication side-effects, perception of seizure control and level global ot quality of life improved after surgery. Quality ot life improvement was directly correlated with seizure control; nevertheless, neuropsychological improvement depended on severa I factors (etiology, type of epilepsy and surgery)

ASSUNTO(S)

neuropsicologia epilepsia em crianças qualidade de vida

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