Usefulness of unilateral interictal sharp waves of temporal lobe origin in prolonged video-EEG monitoring studies.

Abstract

The value of EEG interictal epileptiform activity in predicting location of the seizure focus remains controversial. In 64 patients, scalp video-EEG monitoring studies showed one or two ipsilateral interictal foci in the temporal lobe. The site of these interictal foci correlated with location of the seizure focus recorded during prolonged video-electrocorticography (ECoG) with use of subdural grids placed under the mesiobasal temporal region and over the lateral temporal convexity. Our findings suggest that unilateral anterotemporal interictal foci can accurately predict location of seizure onset. This is also true in patients with two ipsilateral temporal interictal foci, provided that the dominant focus is localized in anterotemporal regions. We believe that in such patients invasive recordings are not warranted, but we caution against sole use of interictal epileptiform criteria for localization of the seizure focus. Correlation with clinical information, ictal EEG, neuropsychometric, and neuroimaging studies is required before performance of epilepsy surgery.