Effect of commissurotomy on complex partial epilepsy in patients without a resectable seizure focus

Twenty-five patients in a series of 51 undergoing partial or complete section of the corpus callosum for the treatment of intractable epilepsy experienced complex partial seizures among their seizure types preoperatively. Ten of these 25 patients have experienced no further complex partial seizures. Reduction in severity of seizures has been found in 11 of the 15 patients still experiencing this seizure type, and 3 have had greater than 80% frequency reduction. These findings are consistent with the electrophysiologic observations of Lieb on the relative unimportance of the hippocampal commissure in man and the behavioral observations of Quesney on unilateral versus bilateral temporal lobe seizure activity.