Infantile spasms: The development of nonverbal communication after epilepsy surgery

The postoperative development of nonverbal communication was studied in 29 children, aged 18.2 (SD = 11.54) months, who underwent multilobar resection or hemispherectomy for intractable symptomatic infantile spasms (IS), Usin g the Early Social Communication Scale, the IS subjects had little, if any, social interaction, joint attention or behavior regulation before surgery, After a mean follow-up of 24 months, most of the children continued to hav e delayed nonverbal communication skills compared to normal children. Seizu re-related, surgical and cognitive factors were un related to the postsurgi cal development of nonverbal communication. The children with right-sided s urgery had a statistically significant increase in the use of social intera ction but not in other gestural behaviors. Removal of the frontal lobe was not related to the nonverbal communication outcome, The study's findings su ggest that impaired use of nonverbal communication might be a feature of su rgically treated children with medically intractable IS. Copyright (C) 1999 S.Karger AG, Basel.