Using electroacupuncture at acupoints to predict the efficacy of hippocampal high-frequency electrical stimulation in pharmacoresistant temporal lobe epilepsy patients

Hippocampal high-frequency electrical stimulation (HFS) shows long-term efficiency in some pharmacoresistant temporal lobe epilepsy patients. However, the success of the procedure varies from patient to patient and neither neurologists nor neurosurgeons are currently unable to pre-operatively predict which patients will respond to the stimulation. Just like electrical stimulation of the hippocampus in the brain, electroacupuncture (EA) at acupoints involves electrical stimulation and is also efficient in treating epilepsy. However, the stimulation targets are acupoints, which are located outside of the brain, and we presume that electrical stimulation of both targets can activate therapeutic neuronal networks, which explains why both stimulations are effective in treating epilepsy. Despite the involvement of different activated positions, the neurotransmitters, including both excitatory and inhibitory amino acids, generated from the stimulation are similar. It has been shown that both hippocampal HFS and EA at acupoints are related to the metabolism of amino acids and thus, we propose the hypothesis that EA at acupoints can predict the curative effect of hippocampal HFS: if EA at acupoints is effective, HFS of hippocampus will also be effective. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.