Gelastic Seizure - Surgical Complications

Surgical Complications

Twenty-five percent of patients who have undergone surgery have reported complications. These complications are permanent in seven percent of patients. The main difficulty reported was the loss of their short term memory. The loss typically did not last for more than three months, but in some cases it appears permanent. Researchers believe that the loss of memory may be due to injury to the language dominant hemisphere of the fornix during surgical removal or resection of a hypothalamic hamartoma. Resection of the hamartoma from the mamillary bodies could play a role in memory loss as well. Hemiparesis is another complication that can occur during surgical resection, possibly due to a thalamic perforating vessel injury. Weight gain has been reported in a few patients.