Surgical and postmortem pathology studies: contribution for the investigation of temporal lobe epilepsy

• Autor(a) principal: Caboclo, Luís Otávio Sales Ferreira [UNIFESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Neves, Rafael Scarpa da Costa [UNIFESP], Jardim, Anaclara Prada [UNIFESP], Hamad, Ana Paula Andrade [UNIFESP], Centeno, Ricardo Silva [UNIFESP], Lancellotti, Carmen Lucia Penteado, Scorza, Carla Alessandra [UNIFESP], Cavalheiro, Esper Abrão [UNIFESP], Yacubian, Elza Márcia Targas [UNIFESP], Sakamoto, Américo Ceiki [UNIFESP]
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNIFESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0004-282X2012001200009; http://repositorio.unifesp.br/handle/11600/7405
• topic: epilepsy; temporal lobe; mesial temporal sclerosis; pathology; surgical; epilepsia do lobo temporal; esclerose mesial temporal; patologia cirúrgica

Pathology studies in epilepsy patients bring useful information for comprehending the physiopathology of various forms of epilepsy, as well as aspects related to response to treatment and long-term prognosis. These studies are usually restricted to surgical specimens obtained from patients with refractory focal epilepsies. Therefore, most of them pertain to temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) and malformations of cortical development (MCD), thus providing information of a selected group of patients and restricted regions of the brain. Postmortem whole brain studies are rarely performed in epilepsy patients, however they may provide extensive information on brain pathology, allowing the analysis of areas beyond the putative epileptogenic zone. In this article, we reviewed pathology studies performed in epilepsy patients with emphasis on neuropathological findings in TLE with MTS and MCD. Furthermore, we reviewed data from postmortem studies and discussed the importance of performing these studies in epilepsy populations.