PURPOSE Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) represents a common cause of refractory epilepsy. It is considered a sporadic disorder, but its occasional familial occurrence suggests the involvement of genetic mechanisms. METHODS Siblings with intractable epilepsy were referred for epilepsy surgery evaluation. Both patients were examined using video-EEG monitoring, MRI examination and PET imaging. Th...

Efforts to duplicate the genetic and molecular breakthroughs of autosomal dominant frontal lobe epilepsy have lead to increased interest in familial temporal lobe epilepsy. In this report we describe three kindreds. The epilepsy syndrome described manifests after the teenage years and was generally mild and treatment responsive. The predominant seizure types were simple and complex partial seiz...

Widespread changes involving neocortical and mesial temporal lobe structures can be present in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and hippocampal sclerosis. The incidence, pathology, and clinical significance of neocortical temporal lobe sclerosis (TLS) are not well characterized. We identified TLS in 30 of 272 surgically treated cases of hippocampal sclerosis. Temporal lobe sclerosis was def...

BACKGROUND There is controversy regarding the precise mechanism by which epilepsy results after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Previous reports have suggested that mesial temporal lobe epilepsy may result from TBI only in young children, while neocortical epilepsy arises from TBI in later life. These conclusions were based on surgical series and may be biased because of patient selection. OBJE...

BACKGROUND Clinical and neuroimaging features of patients with epilepsy and coexisting extratemporal porencephaly and hippocampal sclerosis have been previously described. OBJECTIVE To present the clinical characteristics and surgical outcome of 6 patients with intractable epilepsy and coexisting extratemporal porencephaly and hippocampal sclerosis. PATIENTS AND METHODS Twenty-four patients...

Intraoperative electrocorticography (ECoG) has been traditionally used in the surgical management of medically refractory partial epilepsies to identify the location and limits of the epileptogenic area, to guide the extent of resection, and to assess its completeness. Although in clinical use for many years, the basic questions regarding indications and limitations of this method has remained ...

abstract aim and background: evaluation of cognition is fundamental for every comprehensive epilepsy program. we sought to conduct this study to assess memory state of patients with refractory temporal lobe epilepsy before decision for epilepsy surgery. method and materials: in a case-control study, 20 patients with right temporal lobe epilepsy and 20 patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy w...

The relationship between depression and epilepsy has been known since ancient times, however, to date, it is not fully understood. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders in persons with epilepsy is high compared to general population. It is assumed that the rate of depression ranges from 20 to 55% in patients with refractory epilepsy, especially considering those with temporal lobe epilepsy ca...

Late seizure relapses following temporal lobectomy for drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy occur in 18-30% of operated-on cases, and recent evidence suggests that a significant proportion of them are due to maturation and activation of proepileptic tissue having defied initial resection and located at the vicinity of or at a short distance from its borders, usually over the posterior medial, ...

Limbic P300 potentials can be recorded within the mesial temporal lobes of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). To delineate possible mechanisms of their generation and pathological alteration, we analysed limbic P300s in 55 TLE patients with and 29 without Ammon's horn sclerosis (AHS) and correlated their amplitudes with neuronal cell counts in 30 histopathological specimens. Limbic P30...