Clinical and Electrophysiological Characteristics of Patients with Juvenile Absence Epilepsy in a Turkish Cohort

Abstract

Juvenile absence epilepsy is an epileptic syndrome that usually begins between the ages of 9-13 and is classified in the group of genetic generalized epilepsies, in which absence seizures are seen mainly but may also be accompanied by motor seizures in the follow-up. In our study, 33 patients who were followed up in our clinic with the diagnosis of juvenile absence epilepsy between 2010-2022 were evaluated retrospectively. Thirteen of them were excluded from the study due to insufficient clinical or electrophysiological knowledge, being diagnosed with another epileptic syndrome during follow-up. The mean age of the 20 patients included in the evaluation was 16.8 years; The mean age of seizure onset was 10.6 years. All patients had absence seizures, which were not seen more often than once a day, 40% had additional generalized tonic-clonic seizures, and 20% had focal electroencephalographic abnormalities in addition to generalized discharges on electroencephalography. Seizures recurred in 3 of 5 patients whose treatment was terminated. It was found that currently 85% of the patients continued treatment with valproic acid and monotherapy was sufficient. While there are generalized discharges at the time of diagnosis electrophysiologically, focal findings tend to occur in the follow-up; This was also found to be important in the evaluation of seizure recurrence and treatment options in patients with long-term follow-up.