PSYCHOSOCIAL OUTCOME OF PATIENTS WITH AMYGDALOHIPPOCAMPECTOMY

We examined the quality of life of 90 patients who underwent the microsurgical procedure of selective amygdalohippocampectomy (AHE) for treatment of medically intractable complex partial seizures. The variables-psychosocial adjustment, personal career, and family support-were analyzed. These variables were then correlated with the postoperative seizure outcome, the preoperative duration of seizures, and the amount of tissue resected during surgery. A significant positive correlation was found between seizure outcome and psychosocial outcome. However, there was no significant correlation between seizure outcome and personal career outcome, although the trend was seen that a better personal career is associated with a better seizure outcome. The better the functional outcome was, the shorter the preoperative duration of seizure illness. Regarding the resected amount of tissue, it was observed that the postoperative psychosocial outcome was better in patients who had a more radical removal of the parahippocampal gyrus, irrespective of the total amount of tissue resected. We conclude that complete postoperative seizure control is the most important single variable predicting psychosocial outcome.