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INTRODUCTION Intraoperative seizures (IOSs) during awake craniotomy (AC) are associated with significant morbidity. The reported incidence of IOS is between 3% and 30%. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors for IOS during AC for elective resection or biopsy of a space-occupying brain lesion. METHODS In this retrospective study, we reviewed the records of all awake craniotomies performed by a single neurosurgeon at a single university hospital between July 2006 and December 2018. IOS was defined as a clinically apparent seizure that occurred in the operating room and was documented in the medical records. Explanatory variables were chosen based on previously published literature on risk factors for IOS. RESULTS Five hundred and sixty-two patients had a total of 607 AC procedures during the study period; 581 cases with complete anesthesia records were included in analysis. Twenty-nine (5.0%) IOS events were reported during 29 (5%) awake craniotomies. Most seizures (27/29; 93%) were focal in nature and did not limit planned intraoperative stimulation mapping. Variables associated with IOS at a univariate P-value

Large repeat expansions in the C9orf72 gene were recently reported to be a major cause of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. Given some of the clinical and pathologic overlap between these 2 diseases and Parkinson's disease, we sought to evaluate the presence of these expansions in a cohort of French-Canadian patients with Parkinson's disease. No pathologic expansion was found in our cohort of patients suggesting that C9orf72 repeat expansions do not play a major role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease.