Introduction: It has been recently shown that activation of the EEG by etomidate is a specific and safe technique during the evaluation of patients for epilepsy surgery.
Aim: To analyze the pathophysiological properties of interictal activity induced by etomidate and compare with the interictal spontaneous activity.
Patients and methods: We studied 13 patients by video-EEG with foramen ovale electrodes. Etomidate (0.1 mg/kg) was injected to activate the epileptogenic region. The activity of foramen ovale electrodes was adjusted to a monopolar voltage source.
Results: Interictal activity mediated by etomidate fits well to a monopolar model, in the same way that the basal interictal activity. The voltage sources distribution recorded during the interictal activity and distribution of voltage sources recorded in presence of etomidate have similar topographical properties. The equivalent charge induced by etomidate was higher than the basal one.
Conclusions: The basal and etomidate induced activity have similar electrophysiological properties, suggesting that the same or similar structures are responsible of both. So, etomidate can be used as an specific inductor of EEG activity during presurgical evaluation.