Objective: To study the clinical features of posttraumatic epilepsy and evaluate the surgical procedures for anti-epileptic treatment and their therapeutic effects.
Methods: Neurological and scalp EEGs were performed in 35 patients with posttraumatic epilepsy, who also underwent CT, MRI examination, single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) prior to intracranial surgery, with intraoperative monitoring of the cortical EEG.
Results: With the cortical EEG monitoring, 16 patients underwent surgical resection of the epileptogenic foci identified by intraoperative EEG, 7 had multiple subpial transection and 12 received stereotactic radiosurgery for the epileptogenic foci localized by PET. In most of the cases, the epileptogenic foci were located around the lesions of encephalomalacia. During the follow-up of 32 patients varying from 1 to 4 years, 18 patients became seizure free, 10 had obvious reduction in the frequency of seizure while 4 failed to respond favorably to the treatment.
Conclusions: Seizures of posttraumatic epilepsy may aggravate the brain dysfunction due to primary trauma, and surgical treatment often yields good effect and lessens the toxic and adverse effect of antiepileptic drugs. Stereotactic radiosurgery guided by PET is safe and effective in the treatment of patients with posttraumatic epilepsy.