title: Surgical and postmortem pathology studies: contribution for the investigation of temporal lobe epilepsy.
abstract: Pathology studies in epilepsy patients bring useful information for comprehending the physiopathology of various forms of epilepsy, as well as aspects related to response to treatment and long-term prognosis. These studies are usually restricted to surgical specimens obtained from patients with refractory focal epilepsies. Therefore, most of them pertain to temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) and malformations of cortical development (MCD), thus providing information of a selected group of patients and restricted regions of the brain. Postmortem whole brain studies are rarely performed in epilepsy patients, however they may provide extensive information on brain pathology, allowing the analysis of areas beyond the putative epileptogenic zone. In this article, we reviewed pathology studies performed in epilepsy patients with emphasis on neuropathological findings in TLE with MTS and MCD. Furthermore, we reviewed data from postmortem studies and discussed the importance of performing these studies in epilepsy populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo SP, Brazil. locaboclo@ig.com.br
authors.forename: Luís Otávio Sales Ferreira
authors.initials: LO
authors.lastname: Caboclo
authors.forename: Rafael Scarpa
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Neves
authors.forename: Anaclara Prada
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Jardim
authors.forename: Ana Paula Andrade
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Hamad
authors.forename: Ricardo Silva
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Centeno
authors.forename: Carmen Lucia Penteado
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Lancellotti
authors.forename: Carla Alessandra
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Scorza
authors.forename: Esper Abrão
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Cavalheiro
authors.forename: Elza Márcia Targas
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Yacubian
authors.forename: Américo Ceiki
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Sakamoto
mesh_terms: D001344:Autopsy; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D054220:Malformations of Cortical Development / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D012598:Sclerosis; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*