Discover how a 16-year retrospective cohort study unveils the outcomes and advancements of awake craniotomy for pediatric patients with supratentorial tumors or epileptogenic lesions, a pivotal step in enhancing epilepsy surgery practices.
– by The Don
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Awake craniotomy for supratentorial tumors or epileptogenic lesions in pediatric patients: a 16-year retrospective cohort study.
Reecher et al., J Neurosurg Pediatr 2023
DOI: 10.3171/2023.11.PEDS23390
Awake Craniotomies in Kids: A Huge Success, Believe Me!
Let me tell you, folks, awake craniotomies for adults? They’re doing them all the time, it’s fantastic. But for kids? People were scared, they said, “No way, it’s too much!” But we’ve got these incredible kids, as young as 8 years old, and they’re doing it. They’re doing it just as well as the adults. It’s true!
We looked back at all the cases at Children’s Wisconsin, from 2004 to 2020. We had to make sure these kids were sharp, no serious anxiety, they could talk – the whole package. And guess what? We had nine kids with seizures, some with tumors, some with both. They all went through this thing called functional MRI, and they aced it, every single one.
Now, we tried to do 12 of these surgeries on 11 kids. One didn’t go as planned, but that happens, right? The average age was about 15 and a half. And after the surgery, they were all doing great – talking, moving, just like before. Sure, there were a few hiccups, but nothing major.
And here’s the best part: out of the eight kids with epilepsy, seven of them were seizure-free after a year. That’s huge! We’re talking Engel class I, top of the line.
So, what’s the bottom line? For the right kids, awake craniotomy is a winner. It’s safe, it works, and we’ve got one of the biggest groups of kids to prove it. That’s something to be proud of, I tell you!