Abstracts

Unilateral facial paresis has been observed in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. We aimed to assess the frequency and significance of this clinical sign in a well-defined cohort of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) patients., One hundred consecutive patients with MRI findings consistent with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) and concordant electroclinical data underwent facial motor examination at rest, with voluntary expression and spontaneous smiling. Hippocampal, amygdaloid and temporal pole volumetric measures were acquired in these exams. Thirty healthy subjects, matched through age and sex, were taken as controls., Facial paresis was found in 46 patients. In 41 (89.13%) of them it was visualized at rest, with voluntary and emotional expression, characterizing true facial motor paresis (FP). In 33/46 (71.74%) patients, FP was contralateral to the side of MTS. There was no correlation between presence and lateralization of FP and neither hippocampal, amygdaloid nor temporal pole volumes. Simple febrile seizures as initial precipitating injury (IPI) were observed in 11 (68.75%) of patients without FP while complex febrile seizures occurred in 12 (70.59%) of patients with FP ([italic]P[/italic] = 0.03). Also, presence of FP was positively associated with age of onset of secondary generalized tonic-clonic seizures (SGTCS) and their duration., FP is useful as a clinical sign with lateralizing value in MTLE and was significantly associated with history of complex febrile seizures as IPI and a longer duration of GTCS, indicating probably more widespread disease., (Supported by FAPESP, CAPES/CNPq.)