This retrospective study is designed to determine whether the thickness of the corpus callosum can predict corpus callosotomy outcome in pediatric patients with epileptic or tonic spasms.

We retrospectively studied 25 patients (18 boys) with intractable childhood-onset epileptic or tonic spasms who underwent corpus callosotomy between March 2008 and January 2017. Seizure outcomes were classified as favorable (class I and II of Engel's outcome classification) or unfavorable (class III and IV of Engel's outcome classification) at 12 months postoperatively. We measured the corpus callosum area on the midline and maximum cerebral area on the para-midline in sagittal magnetic resonance images just before surgery. We statistically analyzed the associations between surgical outcomes and corpus callosum area, corpus callosum area/maximum cerebral area (corpus callosum/cerebrum ratio), or age at magnetic resonance imaging just before surgery, using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses.

Age at surgery ranged from six to 237 months (mean: 119). Main seizure types were epileptic spasms in 17 patients and tonic spasms in eight. Favorable outcomes occurred in 10 (40%) patients and unfavorable outcomes in 15 (60%). Both corpus callosum area and corpus callosum/cerebrum ratio did not show significant associations with the outcomes in the univariate and multivariate analyses. The 95% confidence intervals of corpus callosum/cerebrum ratio strongly overlapped between the favorable and unfavorable outcome groups.

Our data failed to support that corpus callosum thickness on the sagittal image is associated with corpus callosotomy outcomes in pediatric patients with epileptic spasms or tonic spasms.