Temporal lobe
epilepsy, or TLE, is the most common epilepsy syndrome with focal
seizures. These
seizures are often associated with auras. TLE often begins in childhood. Research has shown that repeated temporal lobe seizures can cause a brain structure called the hippocampus to shrink over time. The hippocampus is important for memory and learning. While it may take years of temporal lobe seizures for measurable hippocampal damage to occur, this finding underlines the need to treat TLE as early and as effectively as possible.
Neocortical epilepsy is a type of epilepsy characterized by seizures that originate from the brain's cortex, or outer layer. The seizures can be either focal or generalized. They may include:
- Strange sensations
- Visual hallucinations
- Emotional changes
- Muscle spasms
- Convulsions
- Other symptoms, depending on where in the brain the seizures originate.
Children with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome have severe epilepsy with several different
types of seizures, including atonic seizures (also called drop attacks), which cause sudden falls. This severe form of epilepsy can be very difficult to treat effectively and is usually present for life.
Rasmussen's encephalitis is a progressive epilepsy type in which half of the brain shows continual inflammation. It sometimes is treated with a radical surgical procedure called hemispherectomy.
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