Clinical Study of Benign Childhood Epilepsy with Occipital Paroxysms(BCEOP)

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Although benign childhood epilepsy with controtemporal spikes (BCECT) has been well characterized and extensively studied, the clinical findings and prognosis of benign childhood epilepsy with occipital paroxysms (BCEOP) have been less well understood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate clinical manifestations, responses to antiepileptic drugs, and longterm. Prognosis of BCEOP. METHODS AND SUBJECTS: We studied 10 BCEOP patients seen between 1985 and 1995 and followed up from 2 to 14 years(7.2+/-2.9). RESULTS: In 10 patients, there were 7 females and 3 males. The age of onset ranges from 4 to 9 year-old(6.4+/-1.5). In the cases whose age of onset was below 6 year-old, the main clinical manifestations were tonic deviation of eye bal1, ictal vomiting and frequent development of status epilepticus in the sleep. In the cases whose age of onset was above 7 year-old, the main clinical manifestations were visual symptoms (blurring or blindness) associated with ictal vomiting/headache and complex visual hallucination evolved to automatism. The typical EEG findings were occipital paroxysms, characterized by repetitive high amplitude spike or sharp and slow wave complexes in the occipital area, mainly when the eyes were closed. Except one patient, the seizures responded well to anticonvulsant therapy and did not occur after the age of 11. CONCLUSION: Although the number of cases was small and the follow-up period was not long enough, our data indicated that BCEOP had a good prognosis and showed diverse clinical manifestations, which might be dependent on the age of onset.