Surface cortical cerebral blood flow monitoring and single photon emission computed tomography: prognostic factors for selecting temporal lobectomy candidates.

A series of 23 patients with medically intractable temporal lobe epilepsy was studied with surface cortical cerebral blood flow monitoring, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and subdural strip electrocorticographic (ECoG) monitoring for localization of the seizure focus. All patients underwent anterior temporal lobectomy and seizure outcome was determined after a mean of 9 months (range: 3-17 months). Invasive and non-invasive cerebral blood flow (CBF) parameters with prognostic value for seizure-free outcome were: (a) inter-ictal seizure focus with CBF < 65 ml/100 gm-min; (b) inter-ictal seizure focus CBF < or = normal temporal lobe CBF; and (c) concordance of inter-ictal and/or early post-ictal SPECT and ictal ECoG for seizure focus localization. These results should improve prognostic value of invasive and non-invasive cerebral blood flow data for selection of temporal lobectomy candidates.