Affiliations: Department of Pediatric Neurology, Children's Hospital
at Dartmouth, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, New Hampshire, VA, USA
Note: [] Correspondence: Dr. Nayeem Karim, D.O., Sentara Neurology
Specialists; 816 Independence Blvd.; Suite 2H; Virginia Beach, 23455, VA, USA.
Tel.: +1 757 363 6610; Fax: +1 757 510 9035; E-mail: nxkarim@sentara.com
Abstract: Epileptic seizures are generally considered a cortically based
phenomenon, with motor expression mediated through the corticospinal tracts,
yet half of patients with hydranencephaly have seizures. The mechanisms
mediating expression of seizures in hydranencephalic infants have not been well
studied, but they are assumed to reflect subcortical networks or represent
non-epileptic brainstem release phenomena. Children with hydranencephaly thus
provide a useful model for studying the clinical features of subcortically
mediated seizures. We studied two infants with hydranencephaly using
video-electroencephalogram in order to determine if the seizures arose from
remnants of cortical tissue or subcortical structures, and to analyze features
of seizures of subcortical origin.
