Multiple partial seizure-like symptoms following ‘minor’ closed head injury

Abstract

This report is a phenomenological study of 17 patients who developed multiple, partial seizure-like symptoms after sustaining relatively ‘minor’ closed head trauma. Unlike patients with classic complex partial seizure disorders, the symptoms of these head-injured patients did not tend to occur in stereotyped sequences. In contrast to meagre findings from neuroimaging and EEG evaluations, neuropsychological assessment of these patients often revealed evidence of static and episodic cognitive impairment. The majority of patients in this case series derived significant benefit from treatment with anticonvulsant medication; however, full return to premorbid levels of social and vocational competence was not typically observed. Recent findings from animal research on ‘partial kindling’ phenomena provide a hypothetical model for understanding how subclinical electrophysiological dysfunction may produce partial seizure-like symptoms and associated neurobehavioural dysfunction as longer-term sequelae of traumatic brain injury.