Multiple contact foramen ovale electrode in the presurgical evaluation of epileptic patients for selective amygdala-hippocampectomy.

Abstract

For stereo-EEG evaluation of patients suffering from drug resistant mesiobasal temporal lobe epilepsy a method is described to place multi-contact electrodes percutaneously through the foramen ovale near the brain stem and medial surface of the temporal lobe. The experience with 41 cases is reported. In 28 of them a unilateral well localized focus could be identified. All of them were treated by selective amygdala-hippocampectomy according to Wieser and Yaşargil. During follow-up for at least one year 22 of patients were seizure-free. An additional 5 had a reduction of seizure frequency. Complications were subarachnoid haemorrhage in one case, transient hypaesthesia in another, and transient herpes simplex of the lips in 7 cases.