Benign occipital epilepsy

This is usually a benign syndrome of childhood epilepsy.

Children with benign occipital epilepsy have partial seizures characterised by:

• visual hallucinations
• migrainous phenomena
• postictal headache

There is a subgroup of patients who have resistant epilepsy and cognitive impairment. Some of these children have lesions in the occipital cortex.

The EEG shows sharp and slow wave activity which is suppressed by eye opening.

NICE suggest first-line drugs for this condition are carbamazepine, lamotrigine, oxcarbazepine or sodium valproate (1).

Reference:

1. NICE (October 2004).The epilepsies: the diagnosis and management of the epilepsies in adults and children in primary and secondary care