Focal seizure propagation in the intracranial EEG.

Introduction: intracranial EEG offers a unique opportunity to study epileptic seizures in humans. Seizure propagation has not been extensively studied. We aimed to compare the propagation of focal seizures with onset in different brain regions.

Levetiracetam: a practical option for seizure management in elderly patients with cognitive impairment.

Cognitive impairment and seizures are common in our aging population. Anticonvulsant treatment is problematic due to sedation, cognitive slowing, and behavioral changes. Levetiracetam has favorable pharmacokinetics, good efficacy in elderly individuals, a favorable side effect profile, and lacks major drug interactions.

Treatment and management of epilepsy in the elderly demented patient.

Epilepsy and seizures are more frequent in the elderly population than in any other age group. The number of individuals older than 65 is constantly increasing, and dementia is a process that predominantly affects this age group. Several studies have shown that dementia is an important risk factor for developing seizures and epilepsy.

Do skull base lesions and their surgical treatment cause epileptic seizures?

Objectives: Few reports exist on the risk of seizures with skull base lesions and their surgical treatment.

Patients And Methods: All patients referred for surgery of a skull base lesion at George Washington University Hospital from January 1998 to August 1999 were reviewed. After excluding patients with other risk factors 136 patients were included.

Corpus callosotomy in refractory idiopathic generalized epilepsy.

Rationale: A small percentage of patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) do not respond to medical therapy. Generalized tonic-clonic (GTC) seizures are especially debilitating and can be associated with severe injuries. The benefit, safety and effect of corpus callosotomy (CC) in patients with IGE have not been studied.

Subjective somnolence relates mainly to depression among patients in a tertiary care epilepsy center.

Many patients with epilepsy complain of decreased energy and somnolence. There is increased awareness that comorbidity, especially depression, plays an important role in determining the quality of life for patients with epilepsy. We set out to determine how subjective somnolence is affected by depression, age, hours of sleep, sleep apnea, seizure frequency, and numbers of antiepileptic drugs and central nervous system drugs.

How long do most seizures last? A systematic comparison of seizures recorded in the epilepsy monitoring unit.

Purpose: More information is needed regarding how long seizures typically last, since this influences treatment decisions. Seizure type and other factors could influence seizure duration.

Methods: Data were collected from a random sample of patients being evaluated with continuous video and scalp EEG.

Value of non-invasive testing when there are independent bitemporal seizures in the scalp EEG.

We investigated the value of non-invasive data for predicting the outcome of intracranial EEG and anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) (follow-up>1 year) in patients who have bitemporal independent seizures in the scalp EEG. No previous report has dealt with this patient group. Independent variables were duration of epilepsy, febrile seizures, interictal and ictal scalp EEG, ictal behavior, MRI, [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose-PET (PET) and Wada test and dependent variables were surgical outcome (seizure free or not) and localized on intracranial EEG (finding all symptomatic seizures from one temporal lobe).

Electroencephalogram in the dementia workup.

Dementia is affecting an increasing proportion of the population in the developed world. It is important to reach a correct diagnosis of dementia, because this has implications on the treatment. The electroencephalogram (EEG) is, in general, not a sensitive test for detecting dementia and is not recommended in the standard workup of dementia.