The prognosis of benign localized epilepsy in early childhood.

Onset of seizures during early childhood is a not infrequent possibility in benign partial (localization-related) epilepsy (BPEC) when all these syndromes and not only benign partial epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes are considered. In patients followed up for long periods of time, temporal changes in the EEG often make impossible a distribution into discrete syndromes. The electroclinical patterns overlap and the determining factor is not the location but the morphology of the sharp waves.

Prognosis of benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes: a follow-up study of 168 patients.

A spontaneous and complete recovery of benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal or rolandic spikes (BECT) is taken for granted. However, some authors have reported the occurrence of generalized tonic-clonic seizures in a few adult patients and in some children who have seizures after a long period without problems. The aims of this study were (a) to search for early predictors of outcome and (b) to ascertain the long-term prognosis of BECT in a large group of patients.

[Discontinuation of treatment in epileptic seizures in adolescence].

A retrospective survey on the frequency of seizure-recurrence after drug withdrawal in all forms of adolescent seizures has been undertaken to detect possible prognostic criteria. Patients were selected according to 3 criteria: first seizure between 11 and 19 years of age; out-patients seen by one of us between 1955 and 1979 within the year of onset of epilepsy; all patients followed for at least 5 years after the first seizure. Two-hundred and seventy two patients entered the study.

[Efficacy of sodium valproate in partial epilepsy. Crossed study of valproate and carbamazepine].

An open response-conditional cross-over study of valproate versus carbamazepine has been done in previously untreated patients with partial seizures. Thirty-one patients entered the study. Nineteen were followed up to one year.

Long-term prognosis in two forms of childhood epilepsy: typical absence seizures and epilepsy with rolandic (centrotemporal) EEG foci.

Findings in children seen between 1955 and 1965 during the year of onset of typical absence seizures (90 patients) or rolandic epilepsy (79 patients) were analyzed by actuarial methods. One hundred and eighteen patients were followed for more than 15 years. Rolandic epilepsy is a true benign epilepsy ending with puberty.