A survey of preferences and expectations for surgical interventions targeting atonic seizures in Lennox-Gastaut syndrome

Evelyn Pan; Martin G Piazza; Robert J Kellogg; Steven Wisniewski; Taylor J Abel

doi:10.1007/s00381-024-06397-6

A survey of preferences and expectations for surgical interventions targeting atonic seizures in Lennox-Gastaut syndrome

Childs Nerv Syst. 2024 May 8. doi: 10.1007/s00381-024-06397-6. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Evelyn Pan¹, Martin G Piazza¹, Robert J Kellogg¹, Steven Wisniewski², Taylor J Abel³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, 4401 Penn Ave, Fl 4, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
² Epidemiology Data Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
³ Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, 4401 Penn Ave, Fl 4, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. abeltj@upmc.edu.

PMID: 38717604
DOI: 10.1007/s00381-024-06397-6

Abstract

Purpose: To assess preferences and outcome expectations for vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and corpus callosotomy (CC) surgeries in the treatment of atonic seizure in Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS).

Methods: A total of 260 surveys were collected from patients are caregivers of LGS patients via Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap).

Results: Respondents reported an average acceptable atonic seizure reduction rate of 55.9% following VNS and 74.7% following CC. 21.3% (n = 50) were willing to be randomized. Respondents reported low willingness for randomization and a higher seizure reduction expectation with CC.

Conclusion: Our findings guide surgical approaches for clinicians to consider patient preference in order to design future studies comparing effectiveness between these two procedures.

Keywords: Atonic seizures; Laser ablation; Pediatric drug-resistant epilepsy; Seizure outcomes.