ASPETTI EZIOLOGICI, CLINICI ED EVOLUTIVI DELLE EPILESSIE CON CRISI PARZIALI A SEMEIOLOGIA ELEMENTARE NE ELL'ETA EVOLUTIVA

In the five year period 1973-1978, a research has been carried out by the Clinic of Nervous and Mental Diseases of the University of Bologna, on 86 patients who have shown before age 16 a partial epilepsy with simple symptomatology. In 39.53% of the patients the etiology was unknown, while in 59.30% it was due to lesions; the familial factors constituted a heavy influence in only 2.34% of the cases. The most frequent partial seizures with simple symptomatology were: motor (58.34%), mixed (23.08%) and sensory (13.19%). The frequency of the attacks in more than half of the cases was high and varied from more than one a day to more than one a week. Neuropsychic symptoms occurred in 59.30% of the patients; 1/3 exhibited neurological symptoms and 1/4 showed mental deficiency in a varying degree. Only 9.30% of the patients had psychic symptoms. The EEG in 67.44% of the patients showed specific anomalies, which were focal in 2/3. A short term follow up of patients who underwent planned therapy enables us to state that partial simple epilepsy results were unfavorable in more than 2/3 of our cases.