Indications for videotelemetry prior to mesial temporal lobe sclerosis epilepsy surgery

s 79 sclerosis (MTS) was present. Patients with MTS were more likely to have had a precipitating event after the postnatal period (P = 0.005). Conversely, 7 of 11 patients in the non-MTS group and 1 of 6 patients in the group with MTS had a possible anteor perinatal adverse event. Patients with MTS were also more likely to have a right-sided ischaemic lesion (P = 0.03). There was no difference in age of onset of seizures, occurrence of febrile or prolonged seizures, or frequency or duration of seizures between those with and without MTS. This study examines the relationship between precipitating injuries in ante-, periand postnatal life and subsequent development of MTS. Day-video EEG registration of seizures: comparison between routine monitoring and monitoring done at patient request M. Hardman, L. Howes, M. Brady & T. Bet& Peter Jeavons Neurophysiology Unit, Birmingham University Seizure Clinic, Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, Birmingham, UK Until our Neurophysiology Unit is complete, although we can offer video and electroencephalogram (EEG) seizure registration we are unable to do this at night and have to confine recording to the day time. Opportunity was therefore taken to see if day-video EEG monitoring was useful and in particular to compare the results of routine monitoring in which patients get a routine appointment (usually for 2 days monitoring with sleep deprivation after the first day) with similar day monitoring on patient demand (when they or their relatives feel they are most likely to have a seizure-patients can ring in at such times and can usually be accommodated for video EEG monitoring on that day). Audit suggests that patient-demand monitoring is much more likely to register an epileptic seizure than routine monitoring (in neither case was medication reduced or withdrawn). Routine monitoring is as effective as patient-demand monitoring in terms of capturing non-epileptic events presumably because non-epileptic events do not share the same relationship to the menstrual cycle nor occur in clusters, as do epileptic events. We are sufficiently impressed with the results of patient-demand day monitoring to continue to use this method even when beds shortly become available for overnight monitoring. Effect of massage with jasmine oil on spontaneous spike-wave activity in the electroencephalogram L. Howes, V. Jackson & T. Betts Birmingham Brainwave, Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, Birmingham, UK We have been developing a smell memory technique-using a conditioned odour memory as a countermeasure against an expected or detectable oncoming seizure. This has proved helpful to some patients: it works best if patients have a few preliminary aromatherapy massages with their chosen oil, before developing the conditioned response using an autohypnotic technique. We have, therefore, been studying the effect of various aromatherapy oils given by massage on the electroencephalogram (EEG). We describe the effect of two massages with jasmine aromatherapy oil (done at the same time of day and the same point in the menstrual cycle under the same conditions) on the EEG of a patient with frequent but clinically silent generalized spike-wave bursts in her EEG which had been a consistent feature of this patients EEG for over 2 years (and were increased by sleep deprivation and hunger). Sniffing the oil and hypnotic induction increased spike-wave discharge over baseline: massage with diluted jasmine oil reduced the patient’s spike-wave discharge: after the second massage spike-wave activity totally disappeared from her EEG and had not returned a month later. Is there an anticonvulsant in jasmine? Are we producing a conditioned pharmacological response? Indications for videotelemetry prior to mesial temporal lobe sclerosis epilepsy surgery J.M. Oxbury, J.E. Adcock, G.D.S. Wright, P.B.C. Fenwick, R. Kennett & Z. Zaiwalla Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, UK Some authorities recommend video-telemetry (VT) before all temporal lobe epilepsy surgery (TLES) to predict outcome more accurately. Videotelemetry is expensive and can entail risk from convulsions. Therefore, indications for its use need to be established.