EPILEPSY DIAGNOSIS AND LOCALIZATION IN PATIENTS WITH ANTECEDENT CHILDHOOD FEBRILE CONVULSIONS

Purpose: A history of febrile convulsions (FC) is often obtained in pa tients presenting for surgical treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy (TL E), but it is not clear that preferential temporal localization of epi lepsy is associated with antecedent FC. Methods: We prospectively inqu ired about FC and their characteristics in all patients presenting to an epilepsy clinic through a patient questionnaire and interview. We s tudied the incidence of antecedent childhood febrile convulsions in re lation to epilepsy diagnosis. Results: FC were reported by 133 of 1005 study patients (13.2%). TLE was more likely to be preceded by FC (78/ 310, 25.2%) than extratemporal epilepsy (ETE) (12/216, 5.6%) (p < 0.00 0001) or generalized epilepsy (GE) (16/146, 11.0%) (p < 0.001). Patien ts with GE were more likely than patients with TLE to have had simple FC (p < 0.00005). Prolonged duration was the most common FC complex fe ature in TLE patients. Conclusions: We demonstrated a preferential ass ociation of FC with temporal lobe foci and a weaker association betwee n FC and GE. FC does not appear to be a clear risk factor for ETE.