Determination of the dominant language hemisphere by functional MRI in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the dominant language hemisphere in patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy before surgical treatment by using functional MRI (fMRI).


METHODS
Twelve patients underwent fMRI. Among them, 4 patients also underwent the Wada test. Anterior temporal lobectomy was performed on patients with epileptic focus on the non-dominant hemisphere, and selective amygdalo-hippocampectomy on patients with epileptic focus on the dominant hemisphere.


RESULTS
Ten patients had left dominance, and 2 right dominance. The fMRI results were concordant with Wada test results in the 4 patients who accepted the Wada test. Seven patients underwent anterior temporal lobectomy, and 5 underwent selective amygdalo-hippocampectomy. There was no post-operative dysphasia.


CONCLUSIONS
fMRI is an alternative method of noninvasive functional mapping for language dominance in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.
Gao
X
X
Department of Neurosurgery, Huashan Hospital Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai 200040, China.
Jiang
C
C
Lu
C
C
Shen
T
T
D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male