Hemispherectomy: Indications, Surgical Techniques, Complications, and Outcome

Surgical removal of a pathological, almost non-functional cerebral hemisphere is a relatively old concept in neurosurgery [1]. The evolution of hemispheric surgery from resection to disconnection techniques, along with a number of technological advances (light microscope, microneurosurgical tools, magnetic resonance imaging, neuro-navigation) resulted into significantly faster and less invasive procedures [2,3]. These improvements in association with prompt candidate selection resulted into further reduction of the procedureassociated mortality and morbidity [2-4]. Nowadays, hemispheric surgery techniques remain a viable treatment option for carefully selected, especially pediatric patients suffering from medically intractable, catastrophic epilepsy [5,6].