MEMORY PERFORMANCE DURING THE AMYTAL TEST IN PATIENTS WITH NON-TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY

Problem.-The amobarbital (Amytal) sodium test has been considered an i ndispensable tool in the presurgical examination of patients for epile psy surgery. However, the accuracy of the Amytal test for predicting m emory deficits, especially the amnestic syndrome, has been questioned. Method.-The Amytal test was administered bilaterally to three groups of patients with epilepsy: temporal lobe (n=76), frontal lobe (n=25), and primary generalized (n=8). Each injected hemisphere for each patie nt was graded pass or fail for its ability to support memory. Results. -The percentages of hemispheres that failed the Amytal test were 31% f or the temporal lobe group, 32% for the frontal lobe group, and 56% fo r the primary generalized group. Conclusions.-The Amytal test may be a sensitive measure of memory dysfunction. However, the high percentage of failures remains at variance with the rare incidence of the amnest ic syndrome, suggesting a low specificity for this test.