Electrical status epilepticus during slow sleep: one case with sensory aphasia.

Electrical status epilepticus during slow sleep (ESES) is characterized by an EEG picture that justifies its name. It can be accompanied by epileptic seizures, speech and behavior disturbances and in rare cases by an acquired sensory aphasia. We describe the case of a six-year-old girl, whose EEG presented the typical ESES picture, and who in the span of one year developed a complete sensory aphasia, followed by motor aphasia. After 6 months of treatment with clobazam recovery of speech was nearly complete, but after 8 months clobazam lost its effectiveness and the girl presented a speech regression. Treatment with nitrazepam led to a complete recovery of speech for a second time, while at the same time ESES in the EEG again disappeared. This case, in addition to others described in the literature, suggests the possibility of a direct correlation between electrical abnormalities of the brain and cognitive and speech disturbances.