Temporal epilepsy: causes and treatments

The disease “epilepsy” has several forms. The form of the disease in which the focus of the pathological process is located in the fronto -temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex is called temporal lobe epilepsy. This form of the disease is the most common. Temporal epilepsy is one of the forms of epilepsy in which the focus of epileptic activity is localized in the temporal lobe of the brain.  

Causes of occurrence

The causes of temporal lobe epilepsy are divided into perinatal and postnatal.

Perinatals include:

1. Birth trauma.
2. Intrauterine infection.
3. Intrauterine hypoxia.
4. Asphyxia of the newborn.

Postnatal causes include:

1. Traumatic brain injury.
2. Ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes.
3. Brain hematomas.
4. Neuroinfection .
5. Brain tumors of various origins.
6. Aneurysm of the cerebral vessels.

Signs of the disease

The debut of the pathological process is possible at any age period and directly depends on the reasons that awaken the disease.

Simple epileptic seizures

With an attack, the head is sharply turned to the side, a distortion of taste and smell occurs, a person complains of pain in the epigastric region and the region of the heart.

There is an unreasonable feeling of being lost, there is an unreasonable fear, a distortion in the perception of the distance and shape of objects, visual and auditory hallucinations and a sense of reality, as in a dream. The false feeling that the environment is already familiar, or, conversely, not familiar. The attack is accompanied by a complete loss of personal identity. Usually, simple attacks of the disease flow into more severe ones.

Complex epileptic seizures

These attacks occur with a blackout and loss of control over their actions. There is a repetition of chewing, sucking and swallowing movements. During an attack, a person has no reaction to speech addressed to him and any other stimuli.

A complex epileptic seizure lasts 2 – 3 minutes, after which a person develops a headache and does not remember what happened during the seizure. Complex epileptic seizures are the main symptom of temporal lobe epilepsy.
 

Throughout life, the disease causes changes in intelligence, personality and deterioration in the mental state of a person. Patients with this form of epilepsy are distinguished by emotional breakdowns, the person becomes conflicted, forgetful and distracted. In women, irregularities in the menstrual cycle are possible.

Temporal lobe epilepsy treatment

The main goal of treatment is to reduce the frequency of seizures and achieve a state of long-term remission. With the help of drug anticonvulsant therapy, it is possible to achieve a complete suspension of the course of the disease in 60% of patients. In case of insufficient effectiveness of the ongoing drug therapy, neurosurgical intervention is performed to remove the focus and prevent brain epileptization in the future.

Indications for surgical treatment:

1. Immunity of epileptic seizures to high-dosage drug therapy.
2. Seizures of a severe nature that become the cause of social deaptation .
3. A localized epilepsy-causing lesion is found in the brain.

If the patient has a severe disorder of intelligence, memory and psyche, this makes it impossible and useless to perform surgery.

The prognosis after the operation is more than favorable. In 50% of patients, epileptic manifestations stop, in the rest, the severity and frequency of seizures are significantly reduced. Also, surgery has a beneficial effect on human memory and intelligence.