Seizure types and epileptic syndromes in adults.

Classifications of epileptic seizures and syndromes have been made in 2,956 patients of the adult seizure unit in Innsbruck, Austria, according to the ILAE proposals. In general, both classification schemes can be used in daily clinical work. Some difficulties arise with the subdivision of absence seizures and the lack of subdivision of myoclonic seizures. With idiopathic epilepsies characterized by generalized tonic-clonic seizures, the strict diagnostic separation according to diurnal occurrence occasionally leads to arbitrary classifications. The subdivison of localization-related epilepsies should rather be based on etiological factors than on the suspected anatomical site of the epileptogenic focus.