[Episodes of apnea in an infant: unusual forms of epileptic seizures].

The authors report the observation of an infant who begins at the age of 7 months to present episodes of epileptic apnea with cyanosis, lost of consciousness, hypotony and sometimes ocular revulsion and distal myoclonia. From their onset there are several a day, more frequent during sleep than when awake. From the EEG point of view they are characterized by a 5-7 c/sec large and diffuse rhythm. The infant also presents epileptic myoclonias, tonic and partial seizures. She has a very slight evolutive encephalopathy, disclosed at the age of 4 months by a psychomotor retardation. No etiology has been proved. The CT scan shows during the evolution a cortico-subcortical atrophy. Every type of seizure was very resistant to different treatments. The apneas disappeared after ACTH therapy. The authors demonstrate the epileptic nature of these apneas which are very rarely observed after the neonatal period.