Cataltepe O, Jallo GI. Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery: Preoperative Assessment and Surgical Treatment. 2nd ed. Thieme; 2019; 721 pp; 796 ill; $299.99
The surgical treatment of epilepsy in children has expanded significantly in the past 2 decades, both in the number of centers offering surgical treatments and in the diagnostic evaluation and therapeutic options available. Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery, the expanded and encyclopedic second edition edited by Drs. Cataltepe and Jallo, will be an important resource for radiologists, child neurologists, and neurosurgeons.
This 2020 second edition, appearing 9 years after the original, adds 37 new chapters, hundreds of additional images, updates of original topics, and access to online video resources as well as an e-book format. The textbook has 74 chapters, which are divided rationally into 5 broad parts. The first is an introduction to epilepsy in children that will be of great help to those not formally trained as a neurologist or neurosurgeon. There are useful chapters on the types of epilepsy and epilepsy syndromes of childhood as well as the epidemiology, genetics, neuropathology, ethics, and developmental consequences of seizures on children. The chapter on the history of epilepsy and epilepsy surgery is quite engaging as well. Part 2 covers the selection and preoperative evaluation of children with epilepsy, and is divided into 3 sub-sections covering clinical, neurophysiologic, and neuroimaging. It is proper selection of patients for epilepsy surgery that is the most important first step to a successful outcome. These sections will be of interest to all readers, but particularly to those new to the breadth and depth of presurgical testing involved in the selection of children for treatment. There are useful chapters on intractability, as well as the role of neuropsychology and semiology in patient selection. Of value are helpful online videos that demonstrate clinical seizure types.
The third and most expanded portion of the text compared with the first edition covers the surgical anatomy as well as the intra- and extra-operative techniques for cortical and subcortical mapping. These 8 chapters are new for this edition and have useful chapters on diffusion tensor imaging in subcortical white matter tractography and basic motor and language functional MRI. Inherent in the creation of an encyclopedic text such as this is the lag between writing and publication. The result is only 1 brief reference to the rapidly expanding current use of transcranial magnetic stimulation to stimulate and map the brain.
The fourth and fifth sections are committed to the surgical treatment, postoperative care, outcome, and analysis of failures of epilepsy surgery. These 2 sections contain 41 of the 73 chapters and are one of the strong points of this work. Chapters are contributed by a global list of authors representing a diverse and authoritative group. These chapters are thorough, well written, and illustrated. For the most part, the imaging and anatomic illustrations are of good quality, with helpful legends that add value to the text. Unfortunately, many of the intraoperative images are of moderate clarity and lack appropriate anatomic references that help orient the viewer to the “surgeon’s view.” Despite this minor detraction, the surgical techniques are well described, and the readers will benefit from multiple surgical approaches offered by different authors. There are also online videos demonstrating some of the surgical techniques described. The best examples of the thoroughness of this extensive surgical treatise are the 8 chapters on hemispherectomy techniques, one of the least common operations performed to treat childhood epilepsy.
Overall, this new edition of Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery will be a valuable resource for any member of a pediatric epilepsy surgery program: a neuroradiologist, neurologist, neurosurgeon, or trainee. The book is well written, the references thorough and up to date, and the content meaningful. An authoritative text of this caliber is a tremendous asset, as there are few books on this subject, and certainly none this complete. The second edition of Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery will have a prominent place in our department library—that is, until the next edition arrives.
