[Epileptic encephalopathies in childhood].

We present the study of 23 pediatric cases with infantile epileptic encephalopathies at the ambulatory neuropediatric facility of the Hospital Base Cayetano Heredia and ambulatory neurologic facility of Hospital IPPS Guillermo Almenara (Lima, Perú) between January 1984 and October 1988 with 6 to 54 months follow-up. There was one patient with Ohtahara syndrome, 9 with West syndrome and 13 with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. The clinical and electroencephalographic characteristics were reviewed and related with the outcome. Despite the general characteristics of Ohtahara syndrome our patient had a good prognosis; only two West evolve into Lennox-Gastaut and none of these was West. Although the common features in these syndrome include frequent and intractable seizures and grave prognosis most of our patients had a good control of seizures.