Open AccessA 15-year epileptogenic period after perinatal brain injury
Author(s) -
Francesco Pisani
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
functional neurology
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.505
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1971-3274
pISSN - 0393-5264
DOI - 10.11138/fneur/2017.32.1.049
Subject(s) - epilepsy , medicine , pediatrics , stroke (engine) , perinatal period , lesion , central nervous system disease , pregnancy , surgery , psychiatry , mechanical engineering , biology , engineering , genetics
Seizures are a frequent acute neurological event in the neonatal period. Up to 12 to 18% of all seizures in newborns are due to perinatal stroke and up to 39% of affected children can then develop epilepsy in childhood. We report the case of a young patient who presented stroke-related seizures in the neonatal period and then developed focal symptomatic epilepsy at 15 years of age, and in whom the epileptic focus was found to co-localize with the site of his ischemic brain lesion. Such a prolonged silent period before onset of remote symptomatic epilepsy has not previously been reported. This case suggests that newborns with seizures due to a neonatal stroke are at higher risk of epilepsy and that the epileptogenic process in these subjects can last longer than a decade.