Prolonged postictal hemianopsia after a focal extraoccipital onset seizure

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-11-2021

Publication Title

BMJ Case Rep

Abstract

We report a case of a prolonged postictal hemianopsia occurring after a focal extraoccipital seizure. A 55-year-old man with a history of neurosyphilis, treated with penicillin, presented to our epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) for diagnostic evaluation of his spells occurring for 2 years. The spell semiology was stereotypical, described as oral and manual automatisms, speech difficulty and unresponsiveness. During the EMU stay, after his typical seizure was recorded, he experienced right hemianopsia lasting for 2 hours. Electrographically, the ictal pattern was prominent over the left temporal derivation and propagated to the left occipital derivation as the seizure progressed. Interictal epileptiform activity was over the left temporal derivations. We support the view that postictal phenomenon may represent merely a seizure termination zone and not be necessarily localising to the seizure onset zone. Furthermore, prolonged isolated postictal symptom of hemianopsia could also be noted in rare situations.

Medical Subject Headings

Anticonvulsants; Electroencephalography; Hemianopsia; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Seizures; Time Factors

PubMed ID

33431543

Volume

14

Issue

1

Find It @ Sladen

Share

COinS