Spontaneous Long-term Remission Of Intractable Partial Epilepsy In Childhood

Abstract

Drug-resistant partial epilepsy in children often has a major impact on cognitive development, and early surgical intervention has been advocated to prevent adverse neurobehavioral effects of seizures in such patients. We report a 5-year-old boy who had cryptogenic partial epilepsy of right parietal origin as documented by ictal electroencephalogram (EEG) and glucose metabolism positron emission tomographic (PET) scan. His atonic seizures could not be controlled by multiple antiepilepsy drugs; therefore, cortical resection was scheduled. However, his seizures remitted spontaneously after 1 year of failed medical treatment. The epileptiform abnormality disappeared on the follow-up EEGs, and a glucose PET scan also normalized. This boy has fully retained his cognitive and motor functions and has remained seizure free in the past 4z\x years off medications.