A Little Background Info

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Just notes.

Medial temporal lobe epilepsy often has an onset within a structure of the brain called the hippocampus.  It accounts for almost 80% of all temporal lobe seizures.  Medial temporal lobe epilepsy is also considered a syndrome, which means that a lot of different conditions can result in medial temporal lobe epilepsy.  Individuals who have medial temporal lobe epilepsy have seizures by definition of temporal lobe origin.  There are a lot of different names for the seizures that occur in temporal lobe epilepsy, including,“psychomotor seizures”, “limbic seizures”, and “temporal lobe seizures”. 

I love the word hippocampus. Hippo...campus....

 However, there are some risk factors that suggest that an early injury in childhood for patients may end up developing medial temporal lobe epilepsy.  Many individuals will have a history of at least one seizure having occurred in early childhood with the majority experiencing some type of febrile seizures.  Others conditions often associated with temporal lobe epilepsy are head trauma that has resulted in loss of consciousness, injuries during early childhood and birth, brain malformations, infections such as encephalitis or meningitis, and even some tumors within the temporal lobe.

And further...double down with the febrile and meningitis?

 The most common manifestation of auras typically is that of a déjà-vu experience or some gastrointestinal upset.  Feelings of fear, panic, anxiety or a feeling of a rising epigastric sensation or butterflies with nausea are also other ways in which auras present in medial temporal lobe epilepsy. Some people also report a sense of unusual smell that can raise a possibility of a hippocampal abnormality or a tumor in that area.

Like this status if you seize every time. Common manifestations/yay for probably not a toomah.

Sometimes seizures can be associated with a fixed stare, impaired consciousness, in fumbling with their fingers or lip-smacking movements that last 30 to 60 seconds.  There can be a posture change in an arm that also can help to delineate the location of these seizures.  Some people also note problems where they speak gibberish or lose their ability to speak in a sensible manner.  Some individuals report difficulty with the language, particularly if the seizures are coming from the dominant temporal lobe 

The freakin Pod People stare and aphasia. Impaired consciousness? Yes, please.

The diagnosis of medial temporal lobe epilepsy is still by listening to a person describe their seizures or talking over the symptoms of the seizures with a witness.  An MRI of the brain is considered the standard radiology procedure on these individuals in order to see the characteristic abnormalities associated with medial temporal lobe epilepsy.  An EEG is also an essential aspect of the management of patients with medial temporal lobe epilepsy and they often present with anterior temporal spike or sharp waves, which can invariably occur in both wakefulness and/or sleep.  Sometimes recording seizures is essential in a video EEG monitoring unit.  This is often done in order to localize seizures in preparation for surgery so that a decision can be made, whether surgery can be offered, and whether this may be helpful to stop the seizures in this situation. 

 Isn't that kinda crazy? Guess what. EEGs and MRIs - expensive but not magic. Personally, Non-insured-Joe over here - cannot afford luxuries such as video EEG monitoring or an MRI. For the uninsured, medical care for epilepsy is more like a trip to the village curandera than it is like a voyage through Star Trekkie phaser-scan machines.