Cerebral palsy and epilepsy

Abstract

Introduction. Cerebral palsy is the most common cause of physical disability in early childhood. Epilepsy is known to have a high association with cerebral palsy. All types of epileptic seizures can be seen in patients with cerebral palsy. Complex partial and secondary generalized ones are the most frequent seizure types. In persons with cerebral palsy and mental retardation, the diagnosis of epilepsy presents unique difficulties. Generally they are not able to describe the epileptic events themselves, parents are not able to describe them without fear and persons trained in epilepsy witness the events only rarely. Some syndromes, such as infantile spasms, West and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, are particularly frequent, whereas children with cerebral palsy are rarely free of epilesy. It has been observed that epileptic seizures in children with cerebral palsy tend to have an earlier onset; they often appear in children with cerebral palsy and mental retardation; they are more severe in patients with a more severe degree of cerebral palsy. The overall outcome of seizures in children with cerebral palsy is poor, requiring prolonged course of antiepileptic medications, polytherapy with higher incidence of refractory seizures and hospital admissions for status epilepticus. The presence of a neurological deficit, as well as cerebral palsy, does not necessarily mean a poor prognosis after the discontinuation of antiepileptic drugs, but the risk of a relaps in persons with cerebral palsy is high. Aim. The objective of the paper was to show the relationship between cerebral palsy and epilepsy and to determine the occurrence, associated factors, nature and prognosis of epilepsy in children with cerebral palsy.