Posterior quadrant disconnection for refractory epilepsy: A case series

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the surgical outcome and safety of posterior quadrant disconnection in medically refractory epilepsy arising from the posterior head region from a level IV tertiary care center over a period of three years. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seven consecutive patients who underwent posterior quadrant disconnection for refractory epilepsy were analyzed. RESULTS: We analyzed the data of seven (n = 7) consecutive posterior quadrant epilepsy patients who underwent posterior quadrant disconnection with a mean age of 8.5 years over the last three years of which 4 were male and 3 females. All patients underwent extensive pre-surgical evaluation including detailed history, examination, prolonged video EEG recordings, neuropsychological testing, MRI brain, DTI, PET scan (n = 6), fMRI (n = 4), WADA test (n = 1) and invasive recording (n = 1), Of seven patients four had left sided pathology and three had right sided pathology. All patients except one underwent pure disconnection and one underwent partial resection. CONCLUSION: Posterior quadrant disconnection is effective surgical procedure for medically refractory epilepsy arising from the posterior quadrant in carefully selected patients without morbidity or functional disability across various age groups especially in children. In our series, all seven patient had good seizure outcome and none had functional disabilities.