Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. Considerations in its concept and categorization.

The Lennox-Gastaut syndrome is the biggest target of current epilepsy research, and it contains almost all the fundamental problems in epilepsy. Highly different terms were given to the relatively broad area of the Lennox-Gastaut syndrome by many schools hitherto. But gradually a general outline of this syndrome has been defined and the name Lennox-Gastaut syndrome has been internationally fixed, leading to the holding of the International Symposium at Bad Kreuznach in 1987. Although the Lennox-Gastaut syndrome is a clinico-electrical entity which is clearly defined both clinically and electroencephalographically, diagnostic boundaries are not always precise in individual cases. According to the clinico-electroencephalographic investigation on typical and atypical cases, diagnostic guidelines of the Lennox-Gastaut syndrome were presented in this paper. Etiology and classification of the Lennox-Gastaut syndrome were also mentioned referring to the significance of idiopathic Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.