CLINICAL RELEVANCE OF SOMATOSENSORY CORTICAL EVOKED-POTENTIALS IN PATIENTS WITH PARTIAL EPILEPSY

In addition to EEG registration somatosensory cortical evoked potentials have been studied in 17 patients with epileptic seizures of focal origin. All patients had normal CT and/or NMR scans. Three of 17 patients showed a difference in the cortical SEP-response after stimulation of the right and left median nerve. In one of these three patients the EEG showed no focal lesion, in another patient a focal EEG abnormality of only doubtful significance was present. Although pathologic findings are rare in patients with normal NMR/CT scan, SEP registration is useful in some patients. As SEP registration ist a non invasive widely available, cheap, and easy-to-perform investigation, SEP should be considered early in the search for an epileptic focus.