Intracranial arachnoid cysts and epilepsy in children: Should this be treated surgically? Our 29-year experience and review of the literature

Introduction and objective: Arachnoid cysts (ACs) are relatively frequent lesions related to different neurological symptoms, being mostly incidentally diagnosed. This study aims to clarify whether AC surgery in epileptic patients is useful in their treatment.

Material and methods: The patients registered in the database of the Neuropediatrics Section from May 1990 to August 2019 are analyzed retrospectively. Patients in whom the diagnosis of ACs and epilepsy coincide are studied. The location, size and number of ACs, neurological development, age at diagnosis, follow-up time, the performance of surgery on the cyst, evolution, anatomical relationship between brain electrical activity and location of AC, and type of epilepsy are analyzed.

Results: After analyzing the database, we found 1881 patients diagnosed with epilepsy, of which 25 had at least one intracranial AC. In 9 of the patients, cerebral or genetic pathologies were the cause of epilepsy. Of the other 16, only 2 patients showed that the type of epilepsy and the epileptogenic focus coincided with the location of the AC; one of them was surgically treated without success, and the other one remained asymptomatic without receiving medical or surgical treatment.

Conclusions: Although it is necessary to design a prospective study to establish causality, the results of our research and the available literature suggest that there is no causal relationship between the presence of ACs and epilepsy. The study and treatment of these patients should be carried out in a multidisciplinary epilepsy surgery unit, without initially assuming that the AC is the cause of epilepsy.