Benign nocturnal childhood occipital epilepsy: a new syndrome with nocturnal seizures, tonic deviation of the eyes, and vomiting.

An epileptic syndrome of benign nocturnal childhood occipital epilepsy with excellent prognosis is described. The syndrome is characterized by a clinical ictal triad of nocturnal seizures, tonic deviation of the eyes, and vomiting. There may be marching to involve the head and limbs, ending with a generalized tonic-clonic seizure. Consciousness is usually, but not invariably, disturbed. Infrequent daytime fits may develop one to two years after remission of the nocturnal seizures. Age of onset is usually from 3 to 5 years. Both sexes are involved. There is no family history of epilepsy or migraine. No definite causative factor was detected. The frequency of the seizures is very low with two children having only solitary ones. The interictal electroencephalographic features consist of repetitive occipital spike and slow wave complexes that are induced by closed eyes and darkness and are inhibited by open eyes and fixation with visual cues. It is proposed that this is a new idiopathic age-related-onset syndrome of the localization-related epilepsies.