Background: Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is a recurrent chronic nervous system disease. The conventional treatment is medicine. So far, anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) and selective amygdalohippocampectomy (SAH) are becoming the two main approaches.
Methods: To compare the therapeutic effects between SAH and ATL in the treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy, we conducted a meta-analysis of published randomized controlled trials. The review applied the search strategy developed by the Cochrane Epilepsy Group and the Rev. Man 5.0 software to analyze. We also drew the forest plots with Risk Ratio (RR) as effect size. Six studies were eligible, with a total of 626 patients (337 patients with SAH and 289 patients with ATL).
Results: There was no statistical significance of postoperative seizure control rate after 1 year, as well as the increase rate and decrease rate of verbal memory function between SAH and ATL. There is no statistical difference of therapeutic effects between SAH and ATL in the treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy.
Conclusion: It is advised that clinically, physicians should choose the appropriate approach according to operation indications to improve the results of postoperative recovery.
Keywords: anterior temporal lobectomy; meta-analysis; selective amygdalohippocampectomy; temporal lobe epilepsy.