BACKGROUND Cortical hemispherectomy leads to degeneration of ipsilateral subcortical structures, which can be observed long term after the operation. Therefore, reorganization of the brainstem auditory pathway might occur. The aim of this study was to assess reorganization of brainstem auditory pathways by measuring the auditory brainstem response (ABR) in long-term hemispherectomized patients....

Abstract Background Hemispherectomy is an effective treatment option for patients with drug-resistant epilepsy caused by hemispheric lesions. However, often have deterioration of their motor functions postoperatively. Diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) was reliable in presenting the natural shape white matter fibers. At same time, sprawl pyramid tract (PT) might be more intuitive predicting posto...

Two patients with unilateral disconnection or removal of the entire occipital lobe were tested for residual vision in their blind field. Using image stabilization to eliminate eye motion artifacts, the central portion of each subject's visual field was tested, beginning 1 degree from fixation and extending outward to 13.5 degrees. A narrow zone of residual vision was identified along the retina...

Split-brain cats using a single hemisphere show impaired performance on a variety of behavioral tasks. This has been attributed to a loss of cortical mass action. To test this proposal in primates, performance on a nested match-to-sample task was compared in split-brain, hemispherectomized, and normal monkeys. As expected, split-brain monkeys using a single hemisphere performed worse than norma...

Background. Rasmussen encephalitis (RE) is a severe immune-mediated neurologic disease characterized by unihemispheric inflammation, progressive neurologic deficits, and intractable focal epilepsy. Functional hemispherectomy is considered to be the only effective intervention for this devastating disease. Reports on immunotherapy use in RE, including steroids, IV immunoglobulin, and tacrolimus,...

This study presents the results of a rehabilitation program in a spastic hemiparetic subject who had undergone hemispherectomy because of SturgeWeber syndrome and intractable epilepsy. Sturge-Weber syndrome includes unilateral cerebral cortical angiomatosis, which often leads to progressive cerebral dysfunction and epileptic seizures that are medically difficult to control. A three-year-old gir...

Two left- and right-hemispherectomized patients with contralateral hemianopia and 20 normal controls were administered a line bisection task. All hemispherectomized patients showed a strong bisection bias towards their blind visual field. This contralateral bias persisted when patients were forced to start scanning within their blind hemifield, supporting the idea of a strategic adaptation of a...

Postoperative fever is a usual source of concern among caregivers and patients' family given that it may reflect a wide range of complications. The objective of this paper was to outline the expected postoperative temperature variation after hemispherectomies, and to establish factors that affect this curve. From 1987 to 2003, 30 patients were hemispherectomized in our institution. Among them, ...

We report on the effects of etiology and age on the linguistic outcomes in a large pediatric hemispherectomy population. Four populations were considered separately: cortical dysplasia (multilobar involvement), Rasmussen's encephalitis, infarction as a primary etiology and, fourth, children who failed to develop language, regardless of etiology. We argue against the 'the-earlier-the-better' hyp...