Etiologies and Etiological factors of Childhood Complex Partial Seizures of Temporal Lobe Origin

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Objective: To more precisely explore the etiologies and etiological factors for childhood complex partial seizures (CPS) of temporal lobe origin. Patients and Methods: Thirty three epileptic children who had recurrent temporal lobe origin CPS with definite abnormal lesions confined to or mainly involving the temporal lobe as evidenced on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were studied. For each patient we gathered complete clinical data and performed detailed physical and neurological evaluations. The histories included direct questions about prenatal, perinatal and postnatal events and development, previous brain insults and seizures. Results: Eight patients were diagnosed with intracranial space-taking lesions including low-grade astrocytoma, leukemia, cerebral cysticercosis, dermoid cyst and, arachnoid cyst; and 3 patients had cortical dysplasia. Fifteen patients were documented to have mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS). Eight of 13 cases with unilateral MTS had a past history of febrile seizures, and 2 cases with bilateral MTS had a history of an episode of status epilepticus. Cases of porencephaly and global atrophyof the temporal lobe were highly related to prenatal or perinatal insults including preterm delivery and asphyxia. Conclusions: these results suggest that childhood CPS of temporal lobe origin can result from a wide variety of causes.