[Surgical treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy: a series of forty-three cases analysis]. / Tratamento cirúrgico da epilepsia do lobo temporal: análise de 43 casos consecutivos.

ABSTRACT

Forty-three patients with epilepsy resistant to drug therapy were submitted to temporal lobe epilepsy surgery at the Instituto de Neurologia de Curitiba, from 1998 to 2003. Thirty-nine patients (90.6%) had mesial temporal sclerosis, and four had brain tumors. According to Engel's rating, 83.7% from 37 patients with complete postoperative evaluation were classified as Class I (free of disabling seizure). Postoperative complications (18.6%) were evaluated, with one case of surgical wound infection, one case of hydrocephalus, one case of cerebrospinal fluid fistula, two cases of transient palsy of the trochlear nerve and one case of transient hemiparesis. No death related to epilepsy surgery was found in our study.