Transitory and permanent visual field defects induced by occipital lobe seizures

Visual field defects are rarely associated with epilepsy. We report two patients with a long history of cryptogenetic occipital epilepsy. Both patients suffer complex partial crises accompanied by concentric reduction of the visual field followed, in the first one, by a prolonged left homonymous hemianopsia, and in the second one, by a permanent right inferior quadrantopsia. Occipital and occipitotemporal epileptic activity has been registered between seizures in both patients, and in one patient also during the seizure itself. Differential diagnosis has been considered, especially with migraine.