Postoperative psychoses in epileptic patients after temporal lobectomy.

INTRODUCTION

Psychosis is the most severe psychiatric complication after epilepsy surgery.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We evaluated postoperatively at 1 year the psychoses of a series of 57 adult patients with intractable epilepsy who underwent temporal lobe surgery.

RESULTS

Five patients (8.8%) developed postoperative psychosis. Two (3.5%) of these 5 revealed postictal psychotic episodes in connection with persisting seizures, both of them had had similar episodes even preoperatively. Two patients (3.5%) exhibited a definite and one patient (1.8%) a probable de novo schizophrenia.

CONCLUSION

Our findings clearly emphasize the need for careful postoperative psychiatric follow-up for patients with temporal lobectomy.