Classification of partial epilepsies according to the symptomatology of seizures: practical value and prognostic implications.

Among 1,000 outpatient epileptics who visited the Epilepsy Center of Bologna consecutively from 1974 to 1978, 596 cases of partial epilepsy (PE) were chosen, representing 62.9% of all cases classified according to the International Classification of epilepsies. Fifty-four of these cases (5.7%) of those classifiable) that were affected by benign infantile epilepsy with rolandic spikes were not analyzed further. The remaining cases were divided up into three groups based on the symptomatology of the seizures: (1) partial elementary epilepsy (PEE), 102 cases (10.8%); (2) partial complex epilepsy (PCE), 332 cases (35%); and (3) partial secondarily generalized epilepsy (PSGE), 108 cases (11.4%). The three groups were compared according to the parameters that distinguish recognized epileptic syndromes, in order to see whether they constitute autonomous nosographic entities. Among the three groups, significant differences did not arise with regard to the incidence of single lesional etiological factors, the age of onset of the epilepsy, the neurological context, and the general features of interictal EEG. PSGE instead differs significantly from the other two forms for the minor severity of the epilepsy at first examination and for its more favorable course: after at least 2 years of follow-up under treatment, the epilepsy appeared to be controlled in 60.6% of the cases with PSGE, in 31.6% of those with PEE, and in 37.5% of those with PCE (p less than 0.05). For those with PE, globally considered, only three parameters have a favorable prognostic value: the brief duration of the epilepsy at the first observation, the rarity of the seizures, and the presence of only one type of seizure.