[Perinatal antecedents, psychomotor retardation, learning difficulties and family history. Are they a risk factor for epilepsy?].

OBJECTIVE

Epilepsy has been associated with certain circumstances such as perinatal pathology, learning difficulties, head trauma, infections of the central nervous system, febrile seizures and family history of epilepsy. The objective of our study was to analyze the association of the mentioned circumstances with epilepsy in a group of children with generalized spike-wave (S-W) in the electroencephalogram (EEG).

PATIENTS AND METHODS

One hundred seventy pediatric patients with, S-W were found from a register of 39,322 consecutive EEGs. The patients were classified into 2 groups: epileptic and non-epileptic. Both groups were compared for the presence of known risk factors of epilepsy.

RESULTS

Of the 170 patients, 154 (90.6%) were epileptic and 16 (9.4%) were not. Mean follow-up was 4.5 years. Neither past medical antecedents nor family history was found to be associated with epilepsy.

CONCLUSIONS

The risk of epilepsy in children with S-W in the EEG is not associated with problems in pregnancy, the birth or neonatal period, learning difficulties or family history of epilepsy.