Brain, Vol. 122, No. 3, 561-566,
March 1999
© 1999 Oxford University Press
Article |
Language outcome following multiple subpial transection for Landau–Kleffner syndrome
1 Departments of Psychology and 2 Communication Disorders and Sciences, Rush-Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois and 3 Department of Pediatrics, Evanston Northwest Healthcare, Evanston, USA
Correspondence to:
Christopher Grote, Rush-Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Center, 1653 W. Congress Parkway, Chicago, IL 60612, USA E-mail: cgrote{at}rush.edu
Landau–Kleffner syndrome is an acquired epileptic aphasia occurring in normal children who lose previously acquired speech and language abilities. Although some children recover some of these abilities, many children with Landau–Kleffner syndrome have significant language impairments that persist. Multiple subpial transection is a surgical technique that has been proposed as an appropriate treatment for Landau–Kleffner syndrome in that it is designed to eliminate the capacity of cortical tissue to generate seizures or subclinical epileptiform activity, while preserving the cortical functions subserved by that tissue. We report on the speech and language outcome of 14 children who underwent multiple subpial transection for treatment of Landau–Kleffner syndrome. Eleven children demonstrated significant postoperative improvement on measures of receptive or expressive vocabulary. Results indicate that early diagnosis and treatment optimize outcome, and that gains in language function are most likely to be seen years, rather than months, after surgery. Since an appropriate control group was not available, and that the best predictor of postoperative improvements in language function was that of length of time since surgery, these data might best be used as a benchmark against other Landau–Kleffner syndrome outcome studies. We conclude that multiple subpial transection may be useful in allowing for a restoration of speech and language abilities in children diagnosed with Landau–Kleffner syndrome.
Landau–Kleffner syndrome; language; multiple subpial transection
EOWPVT-R = Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test—revised; PPVT-R = Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—revised; WRAML = wide range assessment of memory and learning
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