title: Relative significance of isolated infantile convulsions as a primary cause of focal epilepsy.
abstract: Isolated infantile convulsions were noted in 206 patients (13%) of 1,572 patients who underwent cortical resection for medically refractory focal epilepsy at the Montreal Neurological Institute over the period 1928 through 1977. In 59 patients (29% of the 206), the isolated infantile convulsion was associated with an identifiable febrile systemic or neural illness. In 54 patients (26%), there was a definite history of cerebral birth injury in addition to the isolated infantile convulsions. Twenty patients (10%) had some other potential etiological factor for the later development of seizures, such as postnatal head injury, Sturge-Weber syndrome, etc., in addition to the isolated infantile convulsions. In 95 patients, 6% of the total 1,572 patient series and 41% of those with isolated infantile convulsions, the latter was the sole apparent cause for the later development of recurring seizures. Although this was the case in a small but significant percentage in this series of patients, more frequently, the isolated infantile convulsion represents a manifestation of invasion of the brain by an infectious agent of a systemic or brain disease, or is a harbinger of the later development of a seizure tendency due to some other preexisting etiological factor.
mesh_terms: D001720:Birth Injuries / Q000150:complications; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000150:complications; D004828:Epilepsies, Partial / Q000150:complications / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D003294:Seizures, Febrile / Q000150:complications; D013036:Spasms, Infantile / Q000150:complications*