title: First-drug treatment failures in 42 Turkish children with idiopathic childhood occipital epilepsies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The early and late benign occipital epilepsies of childhood (BOEC) are described as two discrete electro-clinical syndromes, eponymously known as Panayiotopoulos and Gastaut syndromes. The purpose of this study was to identify predictors of failure to respond to the initial antiepileptic drug (AED).
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 42 children with BOEC were enrolled. Predictive factors were analyzed by survival methods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the 42, 25 patients (59.5%) were boys and 17 (40.5%) were girls and the mean age at the seizure onset was 7.46 ± 2.65 years (4-14 years). Of the 42 patients, 34 (81.0%) were treated relatively successfully with the first AED treatment, and 8 (19.0%) were not responded initial AED treatment. There was no correlation between response to initial AED treatment and sex, consanguinity, epilepsy history of family, age of seizure onset, frequency of seizures, history of status epilepticus, duration of starting first treatment, findings on electroencephalogram. However, history of febrile seizure and type of BOEC were significantly associated with failure risk.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Factors predicting failure to respond to the AED were history of febrile seizure and type of BOEC in children with BOEC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey.
authors.forename: Faruk
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Incecik
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ozlem M
authors.initials: OM
authors.lastname: Herguner
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sakir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Altunbasak
keywords: Children; failure risk factors; first antiepileptic drug; idiopathic occipital epilepsies of childhood