Abstracts

The last few years have seen an increased interest in mechanisms regulating body weight. At hippocampal level, obesity can be viewed as the result of an imbalance between the tendency to seek a reward (food) and learned inhibitory processes. Our objective was to investigate the relation between removal of different brain structures and the development of postoperative eating disorder resulting in weight gain., In order to identify significant differences in weight changes, two groups of patients with intractable epilepsy were studied: patients with medically refractory partial seizures status post amygdalohippocampectomy (n=25) and patients with extratemporal epilepsy who underwent surgery for the same condition (n=18). BMI was calculated at baseline and at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months following surgery. Differences between the two groups were analyzed. The two groups were comparable for control of postoperative seizure, medications, age, gender and co-morbidities., Postoperatively, a significant difference in weight, consisting of weight gain was observed in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy following the amygdalectomy compared to patients undergoing extratemporal surgery ., Our results further strengthen the hypothesis that the amygdala plays a role in eating behavior. This might involve complex neuronal circuits controlling behaviors like rewards, learning and memory formation. This finding supports a possible role for amygdala in eating disorders and challenges the traditional idea of eating disorders associated with hypothalamic disturbances.,