Occipital Hypometabolism Demonstrated by Positron Emission Tomography after Temporal Lobectomy for Refractory Epilepsy

Background: Epilepsy surgery involves well-planned discrete injury to the brain and may create visual deficits. This study seeks to evaluate the indirect effects of temporal lobectomy on brain metabolism by correlating visual field defects and glucose metabolism in the visual cortex of patients before and after undergoing epilepsy surgery. Methods: A retrospective survey of 11 patients who had undergone temporal lobectomy for refractory epilepsy in a single institution from 1986 to 1989, and who had prelobectomy and post-lobectomy visual field examinations and F-18 2-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) as part of a standard comprehensive epilepsy surgery evaluation. The PET images were analyzed to provide a correlation with the visual field defects that developed after the temporal lobectomy. Results: Occipital hypometabolism in the absence of structural lesions of the occipital lobe was noted in seven patients with contralateral visual field defects and in one of four patients without a visual field defect. FDG-PET studies in three patients repeated for as long as 20 months after lobectomy showed no significant change in the occipital hypometabolism pattern. Conclusions: Although the occipital cortex was not directly injured during temporal lobectomy, the resulting hypometabolism correlates with the clinical findings of visual field defects. The hypometabolism may be due to deafferentation after interruption of the optic pathways and appears to be persistent.