[Somatosensory epileptic crises]

A retrospective study of 20 patients with somatosensory seizures is undertaken. The cases were obtained from the series of 1000 patient histories from the Division Epilepsy of the Neurological Institute of Montevideo. Several clinical variables are analyzed and especially the etiological factors are studied. A high incidence of surgical treatable causes was found (50%), especially tumor (35%). Similar results are reported by other authors. A comparative study concerning the tumor etiology in somatosensory and in other types of partial seizures is performed. It was found that tumors have the highest incidence of somatosensory seizures. The authors conclude that radiological studies must be undertaken in all cases of somatosensory seizures in seizures in which the underlying etiology is unclear, in order to rule out a surgical process. Computerized Tomography is at present the most important study, excepting those cases in which an arterio-venous malformation is suspected, which should be studied primarily by angiography.