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Headaches of epileptic origin |
Epilepsies. Volume 13, Number 3, 167-74, Juillet - Août - Septembre 2001, Articles originaux
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 Résumé
Article gratuit
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Author(s) : Katell Beauvais, Arnaud Biraben, Eric Seigneuret, Jean-Marie Scarabin |
Summary : Compared to postictal headaches, headaches of epileptic origin are rare. We report three cases studied with depth electrodes. The clinical expression of the headache seemed to be related to the seizure focus.
A 16-year-old woman, with a left frontal epilepsy (F1-F2 sulcus) of unknown aetiology, presented with bitemporal headaches as the first manifestation of her seizures, described as 'a sensation of a heavy object falling on her head', associated to a sensation of fear to fall and speech arrest. She systematically took her hands to her head.
The second case is a 20-year-old man, with left parietal seizures due to a dysplastic lesion. The patient described a right frontal painful sensation, with a sensation of 'fluttering' of the eyelid that preceded any other symptom for several minutes. The third patient is a 24-years-old woman, with cryptogenic right anterior temporal epilepsy. Headache appeared relatively late in the course of the attacks and was initially considered as postictal. In fact it represented the second phase of the seizure.
Thus, a painful sensation can be one of the initial symptoms, probably due to cortical involvement, or appear later as a result of vascular phenomena. The descriptive characteristics of the painful sensation do not have a localising value. |
Keywords : focal seizures, headaches, epilepsy, stereoelectroencephalography. |
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