德国科学家发现：手术能够改善儿童癫痫患者的认知能力

根据癫痫在线2005年3月29日发表的一项最新研究成果发现：接受过手术治疗的癫痫儿童在总体认知发育方面出现了显著改善，许多患者癫痫不再发作。

研究人员随访了3岁~7岁的儿童，观察他们在接受癫痫手术最初几年内智力的发育情况。尽管严重癫痫儿童是智力障碍的高风险人群，研究结果显示这些儿童在手术之后癫痫不在发作，智力发育的更好，而且确实获得了在手术之前不具有的能力。

“对那些咨询他们孩子是否应当接受癫痫手术的患儿父母，我们的研究结果很好的研究回答了这个问题。”通讯作者Ingrid Tuxhorn医生说。他一直在德国Bethel癫痫中心进行长期生活质量的研究。在手术之后12个月，82%的儿童在发育上出现了稳定的进步，3个儿童的智商增加了15点。智商增加仅仅见于那些癫痫不在发作的儿童。

Tuxhorn医生说：“这项对接受过癫痫手术的学龄前儿童长期认知试验研究的结果显示：癫痫发作史较短、病因较局限、以及癫痫不在发作的患者，在成功的手术之后2~3年认知能力提高的机会更大。现在的问题是提供确定手术治疗理想时间的资料。”Tuxhorn博士与共同作者Hedwig Freitag医生是儿童癫痫综合征以及外科手术治疗教科书的编辑。
 
 
Surgery Reduces Epileptic Seizures
 
Children with epilepsy who underwent surgical treatment showed significant improvements on overall cognitive development and many were left seizure-free, according to a new study published in the March 29, 2005, online edition of Epilepsy.

Researchers followed children aged three to seven years to see how they developed intellectually in the first few years following epilepsy surgery. Although children with severe epilepsy are at high risk for significant mental handicaps, the results showed that those children who became seizure-free after surgery were able to develop better and may actually gain some abilities they did not have before the surgery.

“The questions answered in our study have a significant everyday value for counseling parents whether their child should undergo epilepsy surgery,” said corresponding author Ingrid Tuxhorn, M.D., who is conducting long-term quality-of-life studies on epilepsy at the Bethel Epilepsy Center (Bielefeld, Germany). Twelve months after the surgery, 82% of the children showed stable improvements in development, and three children showed gains of greater than 15 points in their intelligence quotient (IQ). Gains in IQ were only observed in seizure-free children.

“This study on the long-term cognitive outcome of preschool children who had epilepsy surgery shows that children with a shorter duration of epilepsy, more localized etiologies, and a seizure-free outcome have the best chance for improving their cognitive function two to three years after a successful operation,” observed Dr. Tuxhorn. “The question [now] is to provide data to determine ideal timing of surgical treatment.” Dr. Tuxhorn and co-author Hedwig Freitag, M.D., are editors of a book on pediatric epilepsy syndromes and their surgical treatment.