Bilateral anterior thalamic nucleus lesions are not protective against seizures in chronic pilocarpine epileptic rats.

Abstract

AIMS:

To investigate whether anterior thalamic nucleus (AN) lesions are protective against spontaneous recurrent seizures in the chronic phase of the pilocarpine model of epilepsy.

METHODS:

Two groups of rats were treated with bilateral AN radiofrequency thalamotomies or sham surgery 2 weeks after pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus. After the lesions, animals were videotaped from the 2nd to the 8th week after status epilepticus (total 180 h).

RESULTS:

During the 6 weeks of observation, no differences in the frequency of spontaneous seizures were found between animals that had bilateral AN lesions (n = 26; 3.1 +/- 0.6 seizures per animal) and controls (n = 25; 3.0 +/- 0.6 seizures per animal; p = 0.8).

CONCLUSIONS:

We conclude that AN thalamotomies were not effective in reducing the frequency of seizures during the chronic phase of the pilocarpine model of epilepsy.

• Authors: Clement Hamani, Flavio I S Ewerton, Flávia Marcolin de Almeida, Saulo M Bonilha, Luciene Covolan, Clarissa Fantin Cavarsan, Gerson Ballester, Luiz E Mello, Andres M Lozano
• Journal: Stereotactic and functional neurosurgery (Stereotact Funct Neurosurg) Vol. 87 Issue 3 Pg. 143-7 ( 2009) ISSN: 1423-0372 [Electronic] Switzerland
• PMID: 19321966 (Publication Type: Comparative Study, Journal Article)
• Copyright: 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Chemical References

• Pilocarpine

Topics

• Animals
• Anterior Thalamic Nuclei (pathology, surgery)
• Epilepsy (chemically induced, pathology, surgery)
• Male
• Pilocarpine (administration & dosage, toxicity)
• Rats
• Rats, Wistar
• Seizures (chemically induced, prevention & control, surgery)