CORTICOSTEROID-THERAPY IN LANDAU-KLEFFNER SYNDROME

Acquired aphasia with epilepsy was first described by Landau and Kleff ner in 1957. In 70% the aphasia is associated with various epiteptic s eizures but tonic seizures do not occur. Typical EEG-findings are repe titive spikes and spikes and waves of great amplitude located in tempo ral regions. The epilepsy always regresses with antiepileptic treatmen t but the aphasia improves only transiently. In recent years some inve stigators have tried corticosteroid therapy. For an effective therapy corticosteroid should be given in high doses as soon as the diagnosis is established and should be continued in a maintenance dose for sever al months or years. We describe a six year old girl with Landau-Kleffn er syndrome who was treated with corticosteroid and showed a remarkabl e improvement.