ACTIVATED ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY

Abstract

IN CASES of idiopathic epilepsy electroencephalographic abnormalities are commonly present, in the form of generalized dysrhythmias.¹ In a series of 240 cases of post-traumatic epilepsy these abnormalities were encountered in only 9.8 per cent, although foci of slow waves, probably due to the localized cerebral injury, were present in 77.7 per cent of the cases in which examination was made one to three years after injury.² Accurate localization of the area of the cerebral cortex giving rise to the convulsive manifestation in post-traumatic epilepsy is necessary for surgical treatment of the condition. Since it seemed possible that an epileptogenic focus might be more susceptible to a convulsant drug than normal cerebral cortex, an attempt was made to activate the focus selectively by altering the chemistry of the blood. By using electroencephalographic recording to determine the activation before clinical manifestations appeared, it was hoped that the focus might be