FRONTAL AND CENTRAL LOBE FOCAL DYSPLASIA - CLINICAL, EEG AND IMAGING FEATURES

The authors studied 11 patients with developmental malformations and s eizures originating from the frontal and central regions. Patients wit h centrally located seizures had primary involvement of the face or mo uth; clonic activity involving the limb was also seen. Seizures among those with frontal lesions were primarily unilateral or bilateral toni c motor. Secondary generalized tonic-clonic seizures preceded by focal manifestations occurred infrequently in those with central localizati on, but were not rare in the frontal group. MRI revealed abnormalities in 10 patients, nine of whom underwent surgical resection with good r esults. Focal cortical dysplasia may be the underlying epileptogenic a bnormality in young patients with clinical features suggestive of cent ral or frontal cortical involvement.