Painful auras in focal epilepsy

The authors studied the localizing or lateralizing value of painful epilept ic auras in 25 patients with focal epilepsy. Painful auras were seen in 4.1 % patients with focal epilepsy arising from temporal, frontal, perirolandic , or parieto-occipital regions. Abdominal pain was present in 5% of all abd ominal auras in temporal lobe epilepsy and 50% of all abdominal auras in fr ontal lobe epilepsy. In perirolandic epilepsy, painful somatosensory auras were lateralized contralateral to the epileptic hemisphere but not consiste ntly in temporal lobe epilepsy.