Effects of surgical treatment on intellectual performance and memory in a Spanish sample of drug-resistant partial onset-temporal lobe epilepsy patients

Abstract

Knowledge of the effects of surgical treatment of epilepsy on mnesic functions has been steadily increasing in recent years. However, while some authors claim that this function remains seriously impaired after surgery, others argue that there is some recovery. In this study, we compare the pre- and post-operative results (one-year follow-up) of 55 patients (30 with right-temporal localization and 25 with left) suffering from drug-resistant partial-temporal epilepsy. Results of pre-surgical evaluation show that 42% of the patients had memory alterations of both verbal and visuo-spatial types, this group being made up of those patients that had been ill for longest (mean of 20 years). The remaining patients showed more specific deficits related to a particular type of information. Post-surgical results show that the general IQ increase was significant, even though no significant differences were found for general memory.Nevertheless, patients with right-temporal localization showed considerable improvement in verbal memory tasks (contralateral to the area operated on), while the performance of patients with left-temporal localization deteriorated slightly in these tasks (ipsilateral to the area operated on). In the visual memory tests no changes occurred in any of the groups.