Author: Geraldine Petit

Epilepsy is one of the most frequent chronic neurological disorders. In 30 to 40% of the patients, seizures cannot be controlled adequately with medication, whose cases are called drug-resistant epilepsy. For 10 to 50% of these patients, surgery constitutes a valuable treatment option. Aims of the surgery is to control seizures by resection of the epileptogenic tissue without causing damage to areas of the brain responsible for essential functions. Candidates for lesionectomy undergo an extensive pre-surgery evaluation. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is of paramount importance in this presurgical evaluation to detect and delineate lesions. Detection of a previously undetected lesion can drastically change the presurgical planning and significantly improve seizure post-surgery outcome. Yet some kind of lesions, as subtle focal cortical dysplasia (FCD), are more difficult to detect because of their small sizes, and often buried in the complex convexities of the cortex. Practical constraints of time may lead MRI readers to miss those lesions that require increased scrutiny. In a prospective trial, Professor Riem El Tahry & Professor Susana Ferrao santos (Center for...