Posttraumatic epilepsy: the roles of synaptic plasticity

Acute cerebral cortical trauma often leads to paroxysmal activities that terminate in a few hours, but several months later, patients can develop epilepsy. The process occurring between the initial acute triggered seizures and the onset of spontaneous unprovoked seizures is termed epileptogenesis. Here the authors summarize recent morphological, electro-physiological, and computational studies demonstrating that A s indicated by the World Health Organization, trauma together with brain infection are the primary sources of acquired epilepsy at any age, and may account for a higher incidence of epilepsy in developing countries. It is well known that acute cerebral cortical trauma leads to paroxysmal activities; within the first 24 h, up to 80 % of patients with penetrating wounds display clinical seizures that usually stop after a 48-h period (Dinner 1993). Vietnam and Croatia postwar epi-demiological studies report that 10 to 15 years after th