Post-ictal gustatory hallucination, sleep related microspikes and glioma of the sylvian region: report of a case

A 32 year old man affected by grade 1 astrocytoma of the right sylvian region and epileptic seizures, presented gustatory hallucinations as a post-ictal symptom. Spikes of very low voltage during sleep were the only epileptic abnormalities found on his EEG. It is suggested that post-ictal as well as ictal gustatory hallucinations may be a localizing symptom of glioma involving the sylvian region. Furthermore, if systematically searched for, sleep related microspikes may become an EEG sign useful for the diagnosis of brain tumour in patients with epileptic seizures and no epileptic discharges on the awake EEG.