Hemispheric surgery in children: perisylvian technique.

Abstract

Hemispheric epilepsy is quite frequent in children, compared with adults, and encompasses pathological substrates as diverse as hemimegalencephaly, Rasmussen encephalitis, Sturge-Weber syndrome, and porencephaly, among others. These patients most often become pharmacoresistant and thus require surgical management. Although anatomical hemispherectomy is a possibility, the technique that is favored by most epilepsy surgery centers worldwide is functional hemispherotomy, which results in equivalent outcomes with fewer postoperative complications. Therefore, it is essential that pediatric epilepsy neurosurgeons become familiar with these techniques. The present video describes in detail all surgical aspects of the perisylvian hemispherotomy.