Epilepsy Patients with Aura May Benefit from Surgery

Findings suggest promising option for surgical relief

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with partial epilepsy who experience multiple auras during epileptic seizures are good candidates for surgical intervention, according to a report published in the Aug. 21 issue of Neurology.

Prakash Kotagal, M.D., of The Cleveland Clinic Epilepsy Center in Ohio, and colleagues evaluated 31 patients with partial epilepsy who had experienced multiple aura types (abdominal, auditory, autonomic, gustatory, olfactory, psychic, somatosensory and visual) during a seizure.

The majority of patients in the study experienced localized seizures originating from the non-dominant brain hemisphere. Resective epilepsy surgery was performed in 19 patients. Following the procedure, 10 (53 percent) were seizure-free.

"Most patients who report multiple aura types have localized epilepsy in the non-dominant hemisphere, and are good surgical candidates," the authors conclude. "Multiple auras may be underestimated and should be recognized as a significant finding during history-taking and video-EEG recordings."

Abstract
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