ABSTRACT

Symptomatic epilepsies are defined as epilepsies caused by an underlying brain condition or brain damage. In symptomatic epilepsy the majority of seizures are focal, and a seizure is anatomically localized in the area where it has originated. Actually not all childhood onset focal epilepsies result from a known lesion, and idiopathic partial epilepsies are, in fact, very widespread in the pediatric population. Perinatal hypoxia, cortical malformations, neurocutaneous disorders, trauma, tumour, infections, as well as metabolic and chromosomal abnormalities are wellknown reasons behind various types of epilepsy in all childhood age groups. Nevertheless, the etiology of symptomatic epilepsies in one age group is different from that in another. Seizure is usually partial in the first years of life. The seizures in infants manifest themselves as secondary generalized and infantile spasms. As children grow older and the brain matures, the types of seizure become comparable with those of the adults’. Lennox Gastaut syndrome, progressive myoclonic epilepsies and Rasmussen encephalitis have specific seizure patterns in childhood.

Keywords: Childhood epilepsy, symptomatic epilepsy, symptomatic seizure