Recurrent diarrhea as a manifestation of temporal lobe epilepsy

A woman with temporal lobe epilepsy manifesting with repeated episodes of sudden diarrhea and loss of consciousness is reported. A 63-year-old, right-handed female presented with chief complaints of sudden diarrhea and loss of consciousness for almost three decades. The first attack occurred in her 30s, and similar attacks repeated several times in a year. Her attacks comprised abrupt abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, sudden emergence of old memories relating to when she had played with her brother in her childhood, and loss of consciousness during defecation. She had no convulsion or automatism and fully recovered in a few minutes. Every time she was transferred to emergency hospital by ambulance, she had examinations such as blood test, head computed tomography, electrocardiogram, abdominal ultrasound, and electroencephalography (EEG), but no specific diagnosis was made. On admission to our hospital, vital signs, neurological examination, and blood tests did not show abnormal findings. During long-term video-EEG monitoring for 40 h, she had no habitual event. Interictal EEG showed intermittent irregular delta waves and sharp regional transients in the left anterio-midtemporal area. Sharp transients were not as outstanding from background activities as to be defined as epileptiform discharges, but they were reproducible in morphology and distribution and appeared not only in sleep but also in wakefulness. Brain magnetic resonance imaging was unremarkable. Single-photon emission computed tomography showed a decrease of blood flow in the left frontal and temporal lobes. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III showed a decline of verbal comprehension. We concluded that the patient was suffering from partial epilepsy originating from the left temporal lobe. Carbamazepine markedly improved her seizures. Temporal lobe epilepsy can manifest with diverse autonomic symptoms and signs. Abdominal sensations often herald the onset of epileptic seizures. Among them is an uncommon syndrome called abdominal epilepsy in which gastrointestinal complaints are the primary or the sole manifestation of epileptic seizures. In patients who present with diarrhea and other autonomic symptoms otherwise unexplained, a possible diagnosis of epilepsy should be considered.