Neurosurgery in feline epilepsy, including clinicopathology of feline epilepsy syndromes

Vet J. 2022 Dec:290:105928. doi: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2022.105928. Epub 2022 Nov 5.

Abstract

Feline epilepsy is treated with antiseizure medications, which achieves fair to good seizure control. However, a small subset of feline patients with drug-resistant epilepsy requires alternative therapies. Furthermore, approximately 50 % of cats with epileptic seizures are diagnosed with structural epilepsy with or without hippocampal abnormality and may respond to surgical intervention. The presence of hippocampal pathology and intracranial tumors is a key point to consider for surgical treatment. This review describes feline epilepsy syndrome and epilepsy-related pathology, and discusses the indications for and availability of neurosurgery, including lesionectomy, temporal lobectomy with hippocampectomy, and corpus callosotomy, for cats with different epilepsy types.

Keywords: Cat; Drug-resistant epilepsy; Epilepsy surgery; Epileptogenic zone; Hippocampal sclerosis; Hippocampus; Structural epilepsy; Temporal lobe epilepsy.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cat Diseases* / pathology
  • Cat Diseases* / surgery
  • Cats
  • Drug Resistant Epilepsy* / veterinary
  • Electroencephalography
  • Epilepsy* / surgery
  • Epilepsy* / veterinary
  • Epileptic Syndromes* / pathology
  • Epileptic Syndromes* / veterinary
  • Hippocampus / pathology
  • Neurosurgery*
  • Seizures / veterinary