Brain : a journal of neurology
-
Reasons for failed temporal lobe epilepsy surgery remain unclear. Temporal plus epilepsy, characterized by a primary temporal lobe epileptogenic zone extending to neighboured regions, might account for a yet unknown proportion of these failures. In this study all patients from two epilepsy surgery programmes who fulfilled the following criteria were included: (i) operated from an anterior temporal lobectomy or disconnection between January 1990 and December 2001; (ii) magnetic resonance imaging normal or showing signs of hippocampal sclerosis; and (iii) postoperative follow-up ≥ 24 months for seizure-free patients. ⋯ Temporal plus epilepsy represents a hitherto unrecognized prominent cause of temporal lobe surgery failures. In patients with temporal plus epilepsy, anterior temporal lobectomy appears very unlikely to control seizures and should not be advised. Whether larger resection of temporal plus epileptogenic zones offers greater chance of seizure freedom remains to be investigated.