MR-guided stereotactic laser ablation of epileptogenic foci in children.

OBJECTIVE: For about 30% of epilepsy patients, pharmaceutical therapy fails to control their seizures. MR-guided laser interstitial thermal therapy (MRgLITT) allows for real-time thermal monitoring of the ablation process and feedback control over the laser energy delivery. We report on minimally invasive surgical techniques of MRgLITT and short-term follow-up results from the first five pediatric cases in which this system was used to ablate focal epileptic lesions.

METHODS: We studied the patients with MRI of the brain, localized the seizure with video-EEG and used the Visualase Thermal Therapy 25 System for laser ablation of their seizure foci.

RESULTS: All 5 patients are seizure free and there were no complications as of 2-13-month follow-up.

CONCLUSION: MR-guided laser interstitial thermal therapy has a significant potential to be a minimally invasive alternative to more conventional techniques to surgically treat medically refractory epilepsy in children.