PARENTAL ASSESSMENT OF FUNCTIONAL OUTCOME AFTER CORPUS CALLOSOTOMY

Purpose: We wished to evaluate functional outcome and parental satisfa ction after corpus callosotomy. Methods. We studied a cohort of parent s of 17 patients who had received an anterior corpus callosotomy >7 mo nths earlier (mean 26 months) for severe, intractable seizures. Parent al satisfaction with the overall surgical results was the primary outc ome measure. In addition, the parents assessed behavior changes that h ad been emphasized preoperatively as important aspects of their childr en's function, including alertness and responsiveness, falls and injur ies, and special care needs. Degree of seizure reduction and extent of corpus callosum were also measured. Results: The parents of 15 (88%) patients reported satisfaction with the surgical outcome. All parents who expressed satisfaction would recommend callosotomy to another fami ly in a similar situation. The behavior change most closely associated with satisfaction was improved alertness and responsiveness (p < 0.03 ). Although 9 patients experienced >80% reduction in targeted seizures , satisfaction was not reported at a greater rate as compared with the 6 patients with 50-80% reduction. Conclusions: Most parents report sa tisfaction with the outcome of their child's corpus callosotomy, but a re influenced by improvement in aspects of function and behavior in ad dition to seizure reduction.