title: The prognostic significance of interictal epileptiform activity in postoperative EEGs of patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.
abstract: It has not been established whether electroencephalography (EEG) is a contributing factor in predicting the outcome of surgery for epilepsy. We conducted a prospective study on 26 patients (M/F 14/12, age: 33 +/- 7.5 years, range 19-48) with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) who were followed for 2 years after surgery and who underwent routine EEG recordings 5.6 +/- 3 months (range 3-12) postoperatively. Interictal epileptiform activity (IEA) on the EEG was compared in 17 seizure-free patients to 9 patients with recurrent seizures. The two groups were similar in gender, age, febrile convulsions, trauma, family history, seizure frequency prior to surgery, epilepsy duration and number of antiepileptic drugs. Following surgery, 17 study patients (65%) became seizure free; 9 (35%) had seizure recurrence. Post-operative EEG recordings showed IEA in 8/26 study patients (31%), 3 of whom were from the seizure-free group (3/17, 18%); 5 had seizure recurrence (5/9, 56%) (p=0.078). IEAs in postoperative EEGs were less frequently demonstrated in patients who were seizure free, but the presence of postoperative IEAs does not preclude successful surgical outcome.
authors.affiliation: EEG and Epilepsy Unit, Department of Neurology, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, 6 Weizman Street, Tel-Aviv 64239, Israel.
authors.forename: Svetlana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kipervasser
authors.forename: Sari
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nagar
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Chistik
authors.forename: Uri
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.forename: Itzhak
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fried
authors.forename: Miri Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Neufeld
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011184:Postoperative Period; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012008:Recurrence; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016896:Treatment Outcome