Ictal deafness--a report of three cases

Though negative phenomena like motor inhibition, blindness or aphasia are described as an ictal manifestation of seizures, ictal deafness has not been reported so far. We observed transient ictal deafness in three cases of partial seizures. One of them had seizure spread to the temporal lobe to produce a complex partial seizure. Two of them have CT-detected lesions in the left temporal/parietal area. The other one had left temporal focus on EEG with a normal imaging study. The mechanism of such ictal negative phenomena is unclear. An epileptic focus around the primary auditory cortex, dampening its receptive ability may manifest as cortical deafness.