VERBAL SEMANTIC MEMORY BEFORE AND AFTER SURGERY IN TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY PATIENTS
Abstract number :
2.135
Submission category :
Year :
2002
Submission ID :
1525
Source :
www.aesnet.org
Presentation date :
12/7/2002 12:00:00 AM
Published date :
Dec 1, 2002, 06:00 AM
Authors :
Silvia A. Oddo, Patricia L. Solis, Brenda Giagante, Walter H. Silva, Damian Consalvo, Estela Centurion, Patricia Saidon, Silvia Kochen. Centro de epilepsia, Ramos Mejia Hospital, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Facultad de Medicina, CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argent
RATIONALE: At the end of this activity the participants should be able to discuss stages-of-processing memory theories vs. distributed-memory theories and epilepsy surgery prognosis in regards with verbal semantic memory.
METHODS: Our sample included 17 patients (p) with temporal lobe refractory epilepsy and mesial lesion diagnosed by magnetic resonance images. All p. underwent temporal lobe resections. Patients were evaluated with a neuropsychological protocol before and 6 months after surgery, visual confrontation naming test results were selected for analysis. The exclusion criteria were IQ below 70 and the presence of aphasic symptoms.
Statistical analysis: Data were compared with normal population according to age and education. A chi square test was used to compare both samples ( before and after surgery). Results were correlated with age of epilepsy onset and education using Pearson test.
RESULTS: From the 17 p. analyzed, 9 p. showed deficits on the VCNT compared with normal population. When we compared results in the same p. before and after surgery, we found that 11 p. had a right anterior temporal lobectomy (RATL) and after surgery, in 6 p. there were non significant improvement, and in 3 p. had no significant decline. Six p. had a left anterior temporal lobectomy (LATL). After surgery, in 3 p. there were non significant improvement and 2 p. had impaired. One of this 2 p. shows a significant impairment 6 months after surgery (p=0.03). No correlation was seen between age of epilepsy onset and education.
CONCLUSIONS: In our sample we found, after surgery, 1 p with significant impairment. On the remaining p. it was no possible to define prognosis factors. Temporal lobe epilepsy surgery may determine significant verbal semantic memory decline. In non-aphasic p. this phenomenon may be due to impaired access to the semantic-lexical storage according to the stages-of-processing theories. We also discuss the hippocampal role in the verbal semantic memory processing on the distributed-memory theories framework.
[Supported by: CONICET-UBA]