A USER-FRIENDLY CLASSIFICATION OF EPILEPSIES AND EPILEPTIC SYNDROMES IN CHILDHOOD

Wickramasinghe HT¹, Wint.Z²

¹RIPAS Hospital, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

²Community Paediatrician, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Objective: The present ILEA Classification of Epilepsies and Epileptic syndromes is based on ictal semiology, age of onset, neurophysiological features and other findings. This Classification is confusing to most of the general Paediatricians who look after many epileptic children in the world. A simple Practical Classification based on the clinical features to recognize more sinister malignant and progressive epilepsies from benign forms of epilepsies is more beneficial to the general paediatrician.

Method and results: After a detailed study of available literature, simple, but workable guidelines are presented to recognise malignant epilepsies from benign epileptic syndromes. However any classification on epilepsies is not without fallacies as there are some overlapping in various syndromic epilepsies.

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