Forty-two-Year Postoperative Course after Resection of the Temporal Lobe in an Epileptic Patient

Overview

The authors describe the 42-year postoperative course in a female patient subjected in 1958 to dextrolateral temporal lobectomy because of uncontrollable epileptic seizures. Immediately after surgery she developed expresivne amusia which receded permanently after five days. After five years she began to develop Dupuytren's contracture on the left band and had it operated. The impaired mobility of the left band is difficult to evaluate at present as later the patient suffered a fracture of the left forearm. In 1978 she suddenly developed severe anaemia associated with clinic twitches of the entire left half of the body. Jackson's motor hemistatus persisted for one week and was brought under control by administration of antiepileptic drugs and repeated transfusions. Only then it was possible to confirm mild left-sided spastic hemiparesis. The patient suffers also from left-sided cervicobrachial syndom and in particular „frozen shoulder" on the left side. Objective motor disorders can be explained by unequivocal X-ray findings. From the epileptological aspect the patient can be considered permanently cured.

Key words:
resection of the temporal lobe - epileptic seizures - fonty-two-year postoperative course.