Prognostic significance of failure of the initial antiepileptic drug in children with benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes

Abstract

Benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes is the most common partial epilepsy syndrome in children. The long-term prognosis for children with BECTS is believed to be generally excellent with seizures usually responding well to AEDs. The goal of the present study was to determine the risk factors associated with a poor prognosis. Eighty-four children with BECTS were retrospectively analyzed. Fifty-four (64.3%) were boys and 30 (35.7%) were girls with the mean age at seizure onset 7.1 ± 2.01 years (range: 3-12 years). Of the 84 patients, 72 (85.7%) were treated successfully with the first AED (Group A), and 12 (14.3%) failed to responded to the initial AED treatment (Group B [poor prognosis]). Univariate analyses suggested that younger age of seizure onset, presence of generalized seizures, and frequent seizures (>3 prior to the initial treatment) were associated with failure to control seizures with the initial AED. Multivariate analysis suggested that younger age of seizure onset was the independent risk factor predicting a poor response to initial AED treatment. About 14% of our cohort of children with BECTS continued to have seizures following the initial AED treatment. Further prospective studies are warranted to determine how well prognosis can be predicted by age of seizure onset, type of seizures, and frequency of pre-existing seizures in children with BECTS.