Post-surgical outcome for epilepsy associated with type I focal cortical dysplasia subtypes

Focal cortical dysplasias are a well-recognized cause of medically intractable seizures. The clinical relevance of certain subgroups of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) classification scheme remains to be determined. The aim of the present work is to assess the effect of the focal cortical dysplasia type Ib and Ic histologic subtypes on surgical outcome with respect to seizure frequency. This study also provides an opportunity to compare the predictive value of the ILAE and Palmini et al classification schemes with regard to the type I focal cortical dysplasias. We retrospectively reviewed 91 focal cortical dysplasia patients (55% female; median age: 19 years (interquartile range 8-34); median seizure duration: 108 months (interquartile range 36-204)) with chronic epilepsy who underwent surgery. We compared the pathological subtypes, evaluating the patients' post-surgical outcome with respect to seizure frequency according to the Engel's classification and the ILAE outcome classification. Both the ILAE classification scheme and Palmini et al classification scheme were utilized to classify the histologic subtype. Using chi(2) and Fisher's exact tests, we compared the post-surgical outcomes among these groups. Of the 91 patients, there were 50 patients with ILAE focal cortical dysplasia type Ib, 41 with ILAE focal cortical dysplasia type Ic, 63 with Palmini et al focal cortical dysplasia type IA, and 28 with Palmini et al focal cortical dysplasia type IB. After surgery, 44 patients (48%) were seizure-free. Crude analysis revealed no significant difference between patients with subtypes of ILAE focal cortical dysplasia type I or Palmini et al focal cortical dysplasia type I concerning postoperative outcome according to the Engel and ILAE scoring systems on seizure frequency. Our findings revealed no significant difference concerning surgical outcome with respect to seizure frequency for the histologic subtypes of ILAE focal cortical dysplasia type I (Ib vs Ic) or Palmini et al focal cortical dysplasia type I (IA vs IB). In isolation, the histologic subtype of focal cortical dysplasia type I does not appear predictive of postoperative outcome.