BALTIMORE – Older patients may have better outcomes at 1 year after resective surgery for epilepsy than the general population does, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society. A tendency toward greater prevalence of lesional epilepsy and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) in the older patients in the study population could explain this difference in outcomes. Although surgery might entail greater risks in older patients, the decision to operate should be based on the patient’s inherent risk, and not on his or her age, said Juan S. Bottan, MD, neurosurgery resident at Hospital Pedro De Elizalde in Buenos Aires, and colleagues.
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Epilepsy surgery as a treatment for elderly patients is controversial. These patients generally are not considered to be surgical candidates because of concerns about long disease duration and increased surgical risk. Recent literature, however, suggests that elderly patients can benefit from surgery. Lang et al. found that epilepsy surgery success rates can be higher in selected older patients than in younger patients, although older patients may be at greater risk for postoperative hygroma and memory deficits.
Dr. Bottan and colleagues sought to analyze the role of resective surgery in patients older than age 60 years by evaluating surgical outcomes and safety. The investigators retrospectively analyzed 595 patients who underwent resective epilepsy surgery at Western University in London, Ontario, during 1999-2019. Eligible participants had drug-resistant epilepsy that had failed the best medical management. The researchers identified 31 patients aged 60 years or older and randomly selected 60 patients aged 59 years or younger as a control group. Dr. Bottan and colleagues analyzed the population’s characteristics, presurgical evaluations, postoperative outcome, and complications.
The investigators found no significant differences between groups in terms of hemisphere dominance, side of surgery, the ratio of patients with lesional epilepsy to patients with nonlesional epilepsy, and incidence of TLE over extratemporal epilepsy.
Nevertheless, extratemporal epilepsy was more frequent in older patients. Age and duration of epilepsy were significantly greater in older patients, and invasive recording was significantly more common in younger patients.
The most common pathology results in older patients were mesial temporal sclerosis (39%), gliosis (19%), and other (19%). Among younger patients, the most common pathology results were mesial temporal sclerosis (25%), gliosis (25%), and focal cortical dysplasia (15%).
The rates of Engel Class I outcome at 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years were 92.9%, 88.5%, and 94.7% among older patients and 75%, 63.5%, and 75.8% among younger patients, respectively. The difference between groups in Engel Class I outcome at 1 year was statistically significant. Patients with TLE had a better seizure outcome, regardless of age group, but the rate of good outcome was higher among older patients. The rate of complications was higher among older patients, but the difference was not statistically significant.
The study was not supported by external funding, and the investigators had no disclosures.
SOURCE: Bottan JS et al. AES 2019, Abstract 1.343.