Focal epilepsy with mesial temporal sclerosis after acute meningitis
C. Ounsted, G. H. Glaser, J. Lindsay and P. Richards
Following acute meningitis associated with severe convulsions in childhood,
two patients had chronic, drug-resistant, temporal lobe epilepsy. This
disorder was preceded by an entirely natural development, in one case
extending for nine years and in the other case for eight years. Each
patient was treated with right anterior temporal lobectomy. Classic mesial
temporal sclerosis (Ammon's horn sclerosis) was found in both patients.
Relief of the epilepsy was associated with remission of the concomitant
social and psychiatric handicaps. At least ten years of follow-up are
required in the evaluation of the treatment of early brain infections.
Chronic focal epilepsy after childhood meningitis with febrile convulsions
merits neurosurgical consideration.
