Complex partial status epilepticus.

Two children had complex partial status epilepticus, a rare convulsive disorder. The presumptive clinical diagnosis was based on the complex symptomatology occurring within a fluctuating state of consciousness, and on unsustained responses. The diagnosis was confirmed by the ictal EEG, which demonstrated continuous focal discharge in the left temporal region in one patient, and by constant focal spike-and-wave activity over the right temporal areas, which occasionally became hypersynchronous, in the other. We also discuss the possible anatomical substrate and neurophysiological mechanisms of this entity.