Selective memory improvement and impairment in temporal lobectomy for epilepsy

Abstract

Reexamination of 23 patients 1 year after elective anterior temporal lobectomy for intractable complex partial (psychomotor) seizures showed a reduction in certain memory functions combined with an improvement in others. Both improvement and impairment in selective memory functions were related to the degree of postoperative seizure reduction as well as to the side of the remaining temporal lobe. The results imply that uncontrolled seizures interfered with the memory functions of the temporal lobe contralateral to the epileptogenic focus.