A new type of epilepsy : benign partial epilepsy of childhood with occipital spike-waves

TLDR: A benign epilepsy with occipital spike-waves (SEOSW) which could be as clearly defined (if not better) as the benign epilepsy of childhood with rolandic spikes (SERS) is identified and some theoretical remarks about etiopathology and physiopathogeny are made.

Abstract: In the field of benign partial epilepsies of childhood with a mainly if not exclusively functional focus, we 5 have recently identified a benign epilepsy with occipital spike-waves (SEOSW) which could be as clearly defined (if not better) as the benign epilepsy of childhood with rolandic spikes (SERS). That this epilepsy has until now escaped the attention of epileptologists is all the more curious when one considers that the existence of benign epilepsy with occipital focus had been forecasted 30 years ago by F. and E. Gibbs.\" however without the description of the corresponding clinical and EEG symptoms. Such a lack of recognition is undoubtedly related to the relative rarity of SEOSW (about half as frequent as SERS) and to the subjective nature of the characteristic visual symptoms, sometimes being neglected or poorly related by the younger child. The present study, based on 36 cases of such an epilepsy recently identified in our Department of Clinical Neurophysiology in Marseilles, concerns successively: 1) the status of the patients between seizures; 2) the features of the seizures; 3) the course of the disease and 4) some theoretical remarks about etiopathology and physiopathogeny. Rather than giving a glimpse of all 36 cases in a skeleton-like table, only four typical cases are annexed to illustrate the main semiological andlor evolutive features.