Variability of epileptic seizure phenomenology in infants and children
It is well known that some patients may have two or more different types of seizures. Partial epilepsies and more than 15 different epileptic syndromes (e.g. West or Lennox-Gastaut syndrome or epilepsies with absences) can lead to the intraindividual manifestation of two or more seizure types. Among 728 children with epilepsy seen at the outpatient department 9.1% had two different types of seizures and 1.5% had more than two types of seizures. The most common association observed was between tonic-clonic seizures and absences. The most frequently observed epileptic syndromes were in decreasing order: multifocal epilepsies, epilepsies with absences, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and West syndrome. The association of two or more different seizure types in the same patient seems to be a negative prognostic factor.