DELAYED APPEARANCE OF INTERICTAL EEG ABNORMALITIES IN EARLY-ONSET CHILDHOOD EPILEPSY WITH OCCIPITAL PAROXYSMS

Childhood epilepsy with occipital paroxysms is an age-related idiopath ic focal epilepsy. Occipital EEG paroxysms are considered necessary fo r diagnosis. We carried out a close clinical and EEG follow-up (range, 2-12 years; mean, 6 years 7 months; median, 7 years) in 24 patients ( age range, 4-19 years; mean, 11 years 8 months; median, 11 years). In five children with early seizure onset and particularly benign prognos is without any treatment, EEG abnormalities appeared 3-10 months after the first seizure. Four of them exhibited the ictal pattern of versiv e seizures with vomiting. Our findings confirm that in the early idiop athic focal seizure disorders, interictal EEG abnormalities may be lac king at the beginning of the disorder. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.