Other Extra Temporal Lobe Epilepsies
Extra temporal lobe epilepsies are characterised by the seizures arising from the foci outside the temporal lobe. They can arise from following locations in the brain:
- Frontal lobe
- Parietal lobe
- Occipital lobe
- Hypothalamic hamartoma
Seizures arising in the front, base and middle portions of the brain can be pinpointed but with difficulty. The rapid spread of seizure activity in the brain means the seizures are often convulsive. The seizure focus may be in or near functionally important areas of the brain.
Treatment Options
Most of the epileptic syndromes arising from extra temporal regions are treated with extra temporal surgery using the latest technology, including improving MRI, stereo taxis and microsurgery techniques.
- It is the second most common epilepsy found in adults
- Patients complain of non-specific, unexplainable feeling, often localized to the head
- Asymmetric tonic seizures are often preceded by a somatosensory aura
- Patients may experience autonomic auras like nausea or palpitations. There may be emotional auras such as fear
- Seizures are of shorter durations and last for less than a minute
- Consciousness is usually preserved during seizures.
- It accounts for a very small percentage of extra temporal epilepsies
- Clinical manifestations of seizures is generally silent
- Patients experience somatosensory auras that include
- Paresthetic sensations like numbness or tingling
- Dysesthetic sensations
- Painful sensations
- It accounts for about 2-13% of extra temporal epilepsies
- Signs and symptoms can either be due to discharge from the occipital lobe itself or due to the discharge propagation outside the occipital lobe
- Visual hallucination is considered one of the most significant symptoms of the occipital lobe seizures.
- It is usually characterized by gelastic seizures that are usually the first seizure type and occur and very early in life.
- Seizures are usually very brief and frequent.
Clinical and neurological examination along with diagnostic tests is required to diagnose the epilepsy that originates from the extra temporal foci.
Diagnostic tests
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
- Positron Emission Computed Tomography (PET)
- Mapping of blood flow (ictal SPECT) during a seizure