Partial epilepsies in infancy: a study of 40 cases.

Forty patients with partial epilepsy that began before they were aged 3 years were recorded at the Centre Saint-Paul between 1981 and 1986 with a follow-up ranging from 1 year 9 months to 20 years. We analyzed the following data: age at onset, clinical features of seizures at onset and during the follow-up period, ictal and interictal EEG features, etiologic circumstances, evolution of the epilepsy, and psychomotor development. The age of onset was mostly between 2 months and 2 years (more than two thirds of cases). Most had partial symptomatic epilepsy. In nine cases, epilepsy was preceded by febrile convulsions. Seizures at onset were of the following type (in order of decreasing occurrence): unilateral seizures, complex partial seizures, elementary partial seizures, and other seizures, often difficult to classify. A few patients with infantile spasms associated with focal or multifocal EEG abnormalities, differing from West's syndrome, were included in this study. We discuss the problem arising from the classification of infantile seizures and epilepsies.