Temporal Lobe Epilepsy With Personality and Behaviour Disorders Caused by an Unusual Calcifying Lesion: Report of Two Cases in Children Relieved by Temporal Lobectomy

Pathological Findings in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

“…We have therefore analysed the biopsy findings in 18 cases of temporal lobe epilepsy treated by temporal lobectomy in the Guy's-Maudsley Neuro-surgical Unit between May, 1951, andJuly, 1953. Each case was one of intractable epilepsy, usually with a range of seizures of minor, amnesic, and grand mal types (Falconer, 1954), in which the electroencephalographic studies had disclosed an epileptic focus confined to or largely predominant in one temporal lobe, while the clinical and neuroradiological examinations had not revealed a tangible structural lesion. Many of the patients suffered also from an associated personality and behaviour disorder.…”

Clinical Manifestations of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and Their Recognition in Relation to Surgical Treatment

“…Recently two cases of fits and behaviour disorder occurring in children, which were apparently due to a peculiar calcifying lesion in the temporal lobe (hamartoma) and which were benefited by temporal lobectomy, have been reported in detail from this unit (Falconer et al, 1953). The following case seems to be similarly successful.…”

“…In the Guy's-Maudsley Neurosurgical Unit we are finding that these intractable cases are often benefited by excision of the affected temporal lobe (Hill, 1953;Falconer, 1953;Pampiglione, 1953 (Meyer and Allison, 1949;Penfield and Rasmussen, 1950). 3. The insula and Sylvian region generally are concerned with sensibility in the alimentary tract (Penfield and Rasmussen, 1950).…”

Hallmarks in the History of Epilepsy: From Antiquity Till the Twentieth Century

“…William Penfield will perfect and establish his surgical procedures as a treatment of choice in intractable epilepsy, especially of neocortical regions (Penfield & Baldwin, 1952;Penfield & Flanigin, 1950;Penfield & Steelman, 1947), whereas one should also mention the method of hemispherectomy introduced by Roland Krynauw in 1950 (Krynauw, 1950). Bailey and Gibbs in 1951 will employ the EEG as a guide to perform temporal lobe surgery (Bailey & Gibbs, 1951), whereas in 1953, Murray Falconer in London introduced the en bloc anterior temporal lobe resection and the term mesial temporal sclerosis (Falconer et al, 1953). In 1954, Penfield will publish with Herbert Jasper, an eminent neurophysiologist, one of the great classics in neurology, Epilepsy and the Functional Anatomy of the Human Brain (Penfield & Jasper, 1954).…”