Introduction and benign epilepsies in infancy

초록

The incidence of epilepsy in the first year of life is very high and remaining at high levels throughout childhood. The epilepsies in infancy are clinically and etiologically heterogeneous group. The special features of the epilepsies of early onset are the results of several etiologic, anatomic, and neurophysiologic factors. one major factor is the immaturity of the infant's brain. There have been efforts to characterize the benign epilepsy syndromes of infancy and childhood and delineate their genetic features. The concept of a benign epilepsy syndrome was defined as " a syndrome characterized by epileptic seizures that are easily treated, or require no treatment, and remit without sequelae". The diagnosis of a benign syndrome allows for the prediction of a likely good prognosis, and can also aid in the choice of therapy and its duration. The majority of patients either remit spontaneously or respond well to therapy, have no seizure recurrence, and have normal developmental outcome. However, a minority of patients initially diagnosed as having a benign syndrome will not follow a benign course.