Neuromodulation of Bilateral Hippocampal Foci, an Alternative for Mesial Temporal Lobe Seizures in Patients with Non-Lesional MRI: Long-Term Follow-up
?e death of Henry Molaison (HM) in December 2008, kindled the discussion based on the postmortem analysis of one of the most emblematic cases in epilepsy surgery. ?Ls patient had bilateral mesial temporal lobe seizures that were refractory to several antiepileptic medications. In an attempt to control his seizures, at age 27, a bilateral temporal lobectomy with amygdalo-hippocampectomy was performed. Since this moment on, his life changed . Even though his seizures were mostly controlled by the procedure, the surgery rendered severe anterograde amnesia. Numerous neuropsychological, imaging and anatomic studies were performed. ?e conclusion of these studies indicates that bilateral temporal lobectomy is a high-risk surgery due to its neurological consequence. Even though patients with refractory mesial temporal lobe seizures are candidates for temporal lobectomy patients are rejected for ablative surgery if they have bilateral independent hippocampal epileptic foci. ?e prognosis is worsened if there is no evidence of hippocampal sclerosis in the MRI . Refractory bilateral seizures are a challenge for every epileptologist, neurologist and neurosurgeon. In 2000 our group proposed electrical stimulation as a feasible alternative for mesial temporal lobe epilepsy and other authors have confirmed the positive results of this method . Since our initial publications no neuropsychological deficit has been observed at low amplitude stimulation parameters, other investigators have confirmed this findLng . Herein we present a long-term followup in seizure control and neuropshychogical outcome of three patients who had no evidence of hippocampal sclerosis in the MRI and showed bilateral independent epileptic foci evidenced by intracranial recordings.