Specific features of epilepsy in children with brain tumors

Abstract

Objective: to study the specific features of epilepsy in children and adolescents with brain tumors and to define the optimal tactics of management and antiepileptic therapy after surgical treatment. Patients and methods. Sixty-one patients aged 5 months to 15 years were examined. All the patients were diagnosed as having a brain tumor found in the presence of symptomatic epilepsy. They were all followed up for 5 years postsurgery or during their lifetime (in case of death). Comprehensive examination encompassing the assessment of history data and concomitant complaints, brain magnetic resonance imaging, video-EEC monitoring, and the neurological status (the presence of cognitive impairments and eye ground changes) was done in all the cases. The probability of epileptic seizures in the clinical presentation of the disease, their semiology, and frequency were studied. Results and discussion. Epileptic seizures were the major complaint in all the patients at the first visit to their doctor. The disease occurred with status epilepticus in 9% of the patients. Different types of generalized seizures were more common (53%; p≥0.05). The tumor was located above the tentorium of the cerebellum in most examinees (77%) and beneath it in the others (23%; p≤0.05). The significant clinical sign of a brain tumor in the epileptic children is focal neurological symptoms (72% of the cases). MRI was performed in children who had no focal neurological symptoms in the late periods. There was cerebrospinal fluid hypertension in 51% of the patients (p≥0.05) and cognitive impairments in 33% (p<0.05). The maximum number (74%) of children with psycho-speech disorders and cognitive impairments were registered in the age group of 7–15 years. Eye ground changes characteristic of intracranial hypertension were identified in 19 epileptic children; they occurred in 27 patients more than 1 year after the onset of seizures. The late (few months-to-14 years) diagnosis of a brain tumor was stated in children with epileptic seizures. The diagnosis was established in patients with a tumor in the cerebral hemispheres in the later periods. The leading symptom in these children was epileptic seizures and EEG changes. The changes detectable by video-EEG monitoring with sleep inclusion were shown to be of diagnostic value.

Keywords

• brain tumors
• symptomatic epilepsy
• children
• electroencephalography
• antiepileptic therapy