Painful Todd’s: Post-ictal painful hemiparesis as an identifier of insular epilepsy

Abstract

The insula can generate seizures which mimic frontal, temporal and parietal epilepsies making electroclinical localization difficult. We report the case of a twenty-one-year-old woman who presented with seizure semiology of a left-sided painful somatosensory aura, progressing to bilateral tonic posturing and complex manual automatisms. She described a painful sensation and weakness affecting her left side following the offset of a seizure, with the pain consistenly outlasting the weakness. This would last from hours to days depending on the severity and duration of the seizure. Stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG) demonstrated seizure onset in the limen of the right insula. Extra-operative stimulation of the insula reproduced the clinical symptoms. She underwent radiofrequency thermocoagulation (RFTC) which has resulted in a significant reduction in seizure frequency. This case report describes a lateralized painful Todd’s phenomenon as a feature of insular epilepsy confirmed by SEEG and extra-operative stimulation.