SEQUENTIAL OCCURRENCE OF BENIGN PARTIAL EPILEPSY AND CHILDHOOD ABSENCE EPILEPSY IN 3 PATIENTS

We first report 3 patients who experienced absence epilepsy (mean age at onset: 63 years; range: 4-9) 1-4 hears after recovering from an ele ctroclinical picture characteristic of benign childhood partial epilep sy (BCPE). All patients were put on monotherapy with sodium valproate, and their long-term course was excellent with remission of absences a nd normalization of EEG recordings. The exceptionality of our observat ion favors the hypothesis that BCPE and absence epilepsy are distinct entities.