Idiopathic Partial Epilepsies in Childhood

Benign partial epilepsies of childhood are idiopathic syndromes that occur in children with normal psychomotor development and have a benign course. Laboratory and neuroimaging work-up do not reveal any organic lesion. These syndromes are age-dependent and seizures tend to disappear spontaneously around the adolescence. The EEG shows localized spikes and slow spikes with a particular morphology increased by sleep. The most typical and widely recognized form is the 'benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes'. They also include Panayiotopoulos syndrome and Gastaut-type idiopathic childhood epilepsy with occipital paroxysms. Other forms have been described with clinico-EEG manifestations that can not be classified as typical cases, such as 'benign childhood seizures with affective symptoms', 'benign childhood epilepsy with parietal spikes and frequent extreme somatosensory evoked spikes' as also 'benign childhood focal seizures associated with frontal or midline spikes'.