Profound memory loss is a rare but serious complication of temporal-lo
be surgery for the relief of medically intractable epilepsy. This pape
r examines the characteristics of the patients who have been reported
to become amnesic following temporal-lobe surgery over the last four d
ecades. The critical role of the hippocampi in memory function are imp
licated in autopsy studies and MRI investigations, but these cases sug
gest that a range of memory impairments result from bilateral hippocam
pal damage, rather than a pure amnesic syndrome in every case. Then is
some evidence that bilateral structural hippocampal abnormalities may
not necessarily be associated with significant memory problems, if th
ese abnormalities have a developmental basis. However, whilst not nece
ssarily profound, any post-operative deterioration in memory function
remains a significant consideration in the presurgical evaluation of t
emporal-lobe epilepsy patients.