Diffuse lesions involving the posterior quadrant (PQ) of the cerebral hemisphere (temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes) induce intractable epilepsy.

These patients are potential candidates for surgical treatment.

Maintenance of isolated nerve tissue activity after surgery plays a crucial role in the neuroprotective effects of neurosurgery treatment.

Shaoya Yin and colleagues from Tianjin Huanhu Hospital in China selected two patients with temporal-parietal-occipital (PTO) intractable epilepsy to receive posterior quadrant disconnection.

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This is a six month postoperative MRI of an 11-year-old male patient with temporal-parietal-occipital epilepsy: right posterior quadrant is completely disconnected, but isolated brain tissue has normal signals, indicating that the disconnected nerve tissue survived.
Credit: Neural Regeneration Research

Postoperative MRI scans of the two epileptic patients showed that the disconnected brain tissue still survived, the activity of temporal-parietal occipital nerve tissue was maintained, and nerve fibers were completely disconnected.

The involved patients were followed-up for over 1 year after surgery, during which time the epilepsy was completely controlled.

The relevant paper has been published in Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 4, 2014).