Frontal lobe epilepsy

Abstract

Frontal lobe seizures are characteristically brief and involving prominent motor behaviors, such as contralateral clonic or dystonic movements, symmetric or asymmetric tonic posture, and hyperkinetic motor behavior. Sleep-related hypermotor epilepsy is a distinct epilepsy syndrome, in which seizures are brief, hypermotor and occur in sleep, with frontal or extrafrontal localization. Genetic etiology can be seen in familial and idiopathic cases of sleep-related hypermotor epilepsy with pathogenic mutations found in CHRNA4, CHRNB2, CHRNA2, KCNT1, DEPDC5, or CRH genes. Frontal lobe epilepsy can be drug-resistant to antiseizure medication. Frontal lobe epilepsies account for 6-30% of all epilepsy surgeries. Favorable seizure outcome ranges from 20% to 78% depending on the series, with more variable long-term surgical outcome.