Abstracts

RATIONALE: Patients with refractory partial epilepsies(RPE)undergoing the intracarotid amobarbital procedure (IAP)frequently display significant emotional reactions (ER)immediately after the test.The correlates of these reactions have not been clarified. METHODS:To study the positive and negative ER observed after anesthesia of one of the cerebral hemispheres,induced during the IAP.We retrospectively evaluated the occurrence and type(valence) of ER in 92 patients(128 procedures; 36 bilateral)with RPE undergoing IAPs during preoperative evaluation, and correlated the findings with the sex, side of the epileptogenic zone, language dominance, and hemisphere injected. RESULTS: Forty-seven of 60 (78%)patients with left(L), and 54 of 68(80%) with right (R) injection had significant ER after the IAP. There was a significant predominance of emotions with positive valence(e.g.euphoria) in comparison with negative reactions (e.g. sadness),irrespective of the hemisphere injected(p=0.0004[R] and p=0.007[L]).There was a significant correlation between males and positive ER, irrespective of the hemisphere injected, whereas no significant correlations for females were observed. There were no significant correlations between the occurrence and valence of ER with side of the epileptogenic zone, and hemispheral dominance for language. CONCLUSIONS: males(but not females)have significantly more positive than negative ER after reversible functional block of either hemisphere. Apparently, therefore, there was no hemispheral specialization related to the occurrence of ER in this context.