It remains unclear whether selective amygdalohippocampectomy, an operative technique developed for use in epilepsy surgery to spare unaffected brain tissue and thus minimize the cognitive consequences of temporal lobe surgery, actually leads to a better memory outcome. The present study was performed to investigate the effects of selective surgery on memory outcome in patients with intractable mesial temporal lobe epilepsy due to hippocampal sclerosis treated by transsylvian selective amygdalohippocampectomy (TSA). The results of the present study indicated that left TSA for hippocampal sclerosis tends to improve verbal memory function with preservation of other memory function. Right TSA for hippocampal sclerosis can lead to signifi cant improvement in verbal and nonverbal memory function, with the memory improvement observed one month after right TSA persisting until one year after surgery.