Introduction: Patients with mesial temporal lobe sclerosis (MTS) usually have suffered a brain insult during early childhood, a febrile convulsion in most cases. Complex partial seizures start after a seizure free period of variable duration. These complex partial seizures have an stereotypic semiology. Often, these seizure are not controlled with medical therapy, previous studies shows a rate of control not superior of 30%. AIM. To know the prognosis for medical control of patients with MTS and to find related factors.
Patients and methods: The clinical characteristics of 51 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and radiologic evidence of MTS (hippocampus atrophy or increased signal on T2 or Flair magnetic resonance sequences).
Results: 51 patients, of them 17 (34%) were men. 17 (34%) presented right MTS, 30 (60%) left MTS and 2 (4.3%) bilateral MTS. 16 patients (34.8%) referred autonomic aura, 14 (27.5%) psychic aura, 4 (7.8%) dysphasia and 13 (25.5%) no aura, in 2 (3.9%) aura were mixed: autonomic psychic. The aura was associated to the lesion laterality (p= 0.023) and to the reference of some antecedent of cerebral aggression during early childhood (p= 0.011). Concerning to the seizure control, 15 patients (29.2%) were seizure free in the last 6 month and 36 (70.6%) remaining uncontrolled. The associated factors to the medical control were the age of onset (p= 0.024) and the duration of the epilepsy (p= 0.018).
Conclusions: Around 29% of patients with MTS can be controlled with medical therapy. Seizure control is related with later age of onset and short duration of the epilepsy