BENIGN PARTIAL EPILEPSY IN INFANCY WITH COMPLEX PARTIAL SEIZURES (WATANABES-SYNDROME) - 12 NON-JAPANESE NEW CASES

International epilepsy classification includes different epileptic syn dromes with favourable outcomes in pediatric age. In addition to these , other forms probably exist and in various papers in international li terature they are proposed as new entities. This article presents a su rvey of benign complex partial epilepsy in infancy, a new epileptic sy ndrome first proposed by Watanabe, in 1987. Our work represents the on ly description of non-Japanese cases although similar but familial cas es had been referred by Vigevano in 1992. We present data for 12 child ren (aged up to 9 years) followed over 2 years who had all the typical clinical features characterizing Watanabe's cases. For all of them we obtained EEG seizure recordings demonstrating the partial nature of t heir fits, arising from occipital or temporal regions. Interictal EEG were completely normal, both in waking and sleep. Evolution demonstrat ed benign outcome and all the children are seizure-free (eight of them have already stopped all medication) and all have normal psychomotor development, (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.