Amygdalohippocampotomy: surgical technique and clinical results.

Object The removal of mesial temporal structures, namely amygdalohippocampectomy, is the most efficient surgical procedure for the treatment of epilepsy. However, disconnection of the epileptogenic zones, as in temporal lobotomy or, for different purposes, hemispherotomy, have shown equivalent results with less morbidity. Thus, authors of the present study began performing selective amygdalohippocampotomy in cases of refractory mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) to treat mesial temporal lobe sclerosis (MTLS). Method The authors conducted a retrospective analysis of all cases of amygdalohippocampotomy collected in a database between November 2007 and March 2011. Results Since 2007, 21 patients (14 males and 7 females), ages 20–58 years (mean 41 years), all with TLE due to MTLS, were treated with selective ablation of the lateral amygdala plus perihippocampal disconnection (anterior one-half to two-thirds in dominant hemisphere), the left side in 11 cases and the right in 10. In 20 patients the follow-up w...