Unilateral motor epileptic seizures.
Unilateral motor epileptic seizures occurred in 118 of 1902 persons with seizure disorders referred to a consultant neurological practice over a 30 year period. The unilateral motor seizures were nearly always manifestations of partial (focal, localisation related) epilepsy but, particularly if they occurred on different sides on different occasions, could be due to generalised onset epilepsy (10.2% of cases). The risk of cerebral tumour in those with unilateral motor seizures (10.2%) was greater than that for those with all other forms of seizure disorder (relative risk 3.56 times; 95% C.I. = 1.95 to 6.49 times). Unlike the situation in younger persons, if unilateral motor seizures began after the age of 20 years the chance of an underlying cerebral tumour (23.4%) was significantly higher than in other persons with adult onset partial seizures (relative risk 2.62 times; 95% C.I. = 1.44 to 4.77 times) and was much greater than that in all other seizure sufferers (relative risk 8.35 times; 95% C.I. = 4.66 to 14.9 times).
Eadie
M J
MJ
Department of Medicine, University of Queensland Australia.