Occipital partial epilepsies symptomatic and cryptogenetic

This study concerns 42 patients affected by occipital partial epilepsy symptomatic or cryptogenic; the seizures start in all during infancy or adolescence. The symptomatic cases prevail: 36 vs 6 cryptogenic. In most cases the cause (proven or probable) consists of injuries suffered in the peri-neonatal period. In almost half of the cases, the patients exhibit seizures with semeiology different from the occipital one. In some cases different polymorphic seizures (absences, tonic) are present, such that the patients exhibit traits of very severe epilepsy. This malignant form of occipital epilepsy is more frequent in the symptomatic patients with bilateral occipital calcifications and/or celiac disease, than in the other symptomatic cases. At the end of the follow-up we found a favourable evolution, with control of the seizures, in 31.7% of our cases (vs 68.3% without control); more than a half of the patients therefore have seizures resistant to the treatment, sometimes with very frequent and polymorphic seizures.