Natural history of postparoxysmal hemiparesis in childhood.

In a period of 4 years, 43 children with postparoxysmal hemiparesis (PH) were observed. Two of them had tumors, five Sturge-Weber's disease, and 36 were "primary". The natural history of these is as follows: PH appears more frequently in children than in adults, girls more frequently suffer from PH than boys. The seizure which precedes the PH is most frequently unilaterally clonic with loss of consciousness. PH lasts mostly between 1 h and 2 weeks and recedes slowly, the type is mostly of the deficitary or pseudoflaccid, and rarely spastic. EEG changes are, in the majority, focal. Most children with PH have got a positive case history of a prenatal, perinatal or postnatal disorder. It weems therefore that PH appears in children with an already disturbed brain structure. The type of hemiparesis points to a pure lesion of the corticospinal tract, which matures slowly and relatively late.