Topical Review: Benign Idiopathic Partial Epilepsies in Infancy

Abstract

In infancy, partial epilepsies have been considered with suspicion for their probable association with brain lesions. Japanese authors first described partial epilepsies in infancy with a favorable outcome and called them benign partial epilepsy in infancy with complex partial seizures. Similar, but familial, cases with onset during the first year of life were described some years later and called benign infantile familial convulsions. Similar familial cases with subsequent choreoathetosis were described in 1997 and called infantile convulsions and choreoathetosis. Benign infantile convulsions have also been described in association with mild gastroenteritis. Interictal electroencephalography (EEG) was always normal in all of these forms. More recently, a new epileptic syndrome characterized by partial seizures with onset between ages 13 and 30 months, a benign outcome, and characteristic EEG abnormalities in the vertex regions during sleep has been described. There is also an early-onset benign childhood occipital seizure susceptibility syndrome that can start in infancy. (J Child Neurol 2001;16:874-881).