Magnetoencephalography and its role in evaluation for epilepsy surgery

TL Poon, FC Cheung, Colin HT Lui
Department of Neurosurgery, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, 30 Gascoigne Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Magnetoencephalography is a newly developed technology used for diagnostic and brain mapping imaging during the presurgical evaluation of patients with medically intractable epilepsy. It provides comprehensive localisation of an epileptogenic focus using simultaneous recordings from the entire brain surface. Magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography are considered complementary and confirmatory to one another. We present a patient with magnetic resonance imaging-negative, non-lesional, neocortical epilepsy. Magnetoencephalography was used for re-evaluation of the epileptogenic zone and this enabled subsequent surgical removal of the epileptic focus. The role of magnetoencephalography in epilepsy surgery is discussed in this report.

Hong Kong Med J 2010;16:44-7

Key words: Epilepsy/surgery; Magnetoencephalography; Preoperative care