De novo aphasic status epilepticus

The literature contains only a handful of reports of patients with aphasia as the principal or only obvious manifestation of partial status epilepticus. Even fewer patients of this type have been well documented both clinically and by ictal EEG monitoring. We studied an otherwise healthy woman with abrupt onset of aphasia initially thought to be the result of an infarct of the left temporoparietal area. We were able to document partial status epilepticus involving the left temporoparietal area with EEG/video monitoring and showed rapid reversal of the aphasic disorder with antiepileptic drug (AED) treatment. The case is presented with a review of previous reports to underscore the importance of considering this diagnosis in patients with abrupt onset of aphasia.