Eleven patients with intractable complex partial seizures underwent temporal lobectomy during their first decade. The mean age at onset of epilepsy was two years and at surgery was 5.5 years. On the basis of data from clinical evaluation, CT, MRI in six patients, and pathological examination of excised tissue, the aetiology of the epilepsy was thought to be mesial temporal sclerosis in four children, glioma in five, dysplasia in one and chronic progressive encephalitis in another. At follow-up eight children were seizure-free, two had reduced seizure frequency and only the child with chronic progressive encephalitis had not benefitted from surgery.