Neuroplasticity in hemispheric syndrome: An interesting case report

Functional hemispherectomy is an accepted treatment in hemispherical intractable epilepsy syndromes. We report a patient who had functional hemispherectomy for intractable seizures secondary to right hemispheric cortical dysplasia. Preoperatively, the patient had mild left hemiparesis and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) showed bilateral motor function lateralization to normal left hemisphere. The patient remains seizure free at 1-year follow-up, with no deterioration of motor power on left side. This report reviews physiology of neural plasticity for motor function lateralization and also reliability of fMRI in determining the functional shift.

Keywords
Epilepsy surgery, focal cortical dysplasia, functional hemispherectomy, functional magnetic resonance imaging, neuroplasticity