Epilepsy

Epilepsy History and stigma Classification Precipitants Epidemiology Seizure types Epilepsy syndromes Treatment Pathophysiology

Epilepsy syndromes

There are many different epilepsy syndromes, each presenting with its own unique combination of seizure type, typical age of onset, EEG findings, treatment, and prognosis. The most widespread classification of the epilepsies divides epilepsy syndromes by location or distribution of seizures (as revealed by the appearance of the seizures and by EEG) and by cause. Syndromes are divided into localization-related epilepsies, generalized epilepsies, or epilepsies of unknown localization.

Localization-related epilepsies, sometimes termed partial or focal epilepsies, arise from an epileptic focus, a small portion of the brain that serves as the irritant driving the epileptic response. Generalized epilepsies, in contrast, arise from many independent foci (multifocal epilepsies) or from epileptic circuits that involve the whole brain. Epilepsies of unknown localization remain unclear whether they arise from a portion of the brain or from more widespread circuits.

Epilepsy syndromes are further divided by presumptive cause: idiopathic, symptomatic, and cryptogenic. Idiopathic epilepsies are generally thought to arise from genetic abnormalities that lead to alteration of basic neuronal regulation. Symptomatic epilepsies arise from the effects of an epileptic lesion, whether that lesion is focal, such as a tumor, or a defect in metabolism causing widespread injury to the brain. Cryptogenic epilepsies involve a presumptive lesion that is otherwise difficult or impossible to uncover during evaluation.

Some epileptic syndromes are difficult to fit within this classification scheme and fall in the unknown localization/etiology category. People who only have had a single seizure, or those with seizures that occur only after specific precipitants ("provoked seizures"), have "epilepsies" that fall into this category. Febrile convulsions are an example of seizures bound to a particular precipitant. Landau-Kleffner syndrome is another epilepsy which, because of its variety of EEG distributions, falls uneasily in clear categories. More confusingly, certain syndromes like West syndrome featuring seizures such as Infantile spasms can be classified as idiopathic, syndromic, or cryptogenic depending on cause and can arise from both focal or generalized epileptic lesions.