Clinical and electroencephalographical classification of epileptic seizures.

Current classifications of epileptic seizures vary considerably, and the need for a standardized and uniform system of grouping is very apparent. For this purpose one hundred and twenty members of several European branches of the InternationalLeague Against Epilepsy (ILAE) met in Marseilles, 1-2 April, 1964, to discuss a possible international classification. After two days of lively discussion, H. Gastaut (chairman), H. Landolt, D. A. Pond, A. Subirana and R. Vizioli, in the names of the French, German, Swiss, British, Spanish and Italian branches of the ILAE presented a preliminary classification. This classification was submitted to a Commission on Terminology consisting of representatives of the American and European Branches of the ILAE (W. F. Caveness, H. Gastaut, H. Landolt, A. M. Lorentz de Haas, F. L. McNaughton, 0. Magnus, J. K. Merlis and D. A. Pond) and of representatives of the World Federation of Neurology and of the International Federation of Societies f o r Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology (IFSECN) (3. Radermecker and W. Storm van Leeuwen). This Commission met at “Meer en Bosch”, Heemstede (The Netherlands), 11-13 May, 1964, with H. Gastaut as chairman, and discussed the M.arseilles proposal, taking into account the principal previous classifications and the electroencephalographic terms as proposed by the Terminology Committee of the IFSECN and avoiding, so far as possible, both neologisms and too new or outrageous points of view. After the meeting the Commission on Terminology proposed a scheme of classification that was published later in 1964 in Epilepsia (5: pp. 297-306). Together with the programme for the 8th International Neurological Congress, an extract of this proposal was sent to all neurologists who are members of a National Neurological Society, with the request to send their comments to Gastaut. On 5 September 1965 Gastaut presented this scheme of classification in Vienna, at a joint meeting of the 8th International Neurological Congress and the Quadrennial Reunion of the ILAE. All criticisms formulated during this meeting and those addressed by 170 neurologists directly to Gastaut, were used to correct the scheme of classification. This was sent to the members of the Commission on Terminology, which had been enlarged to include M. Gozzano (Italy), J. Kugler (West-Germany), P. M. Saradzisvili (U.S.S.R.), Z. Servit (Czechoslovakia), A. Subirana (Spain), T. Wada (Japan) and A. Earl Walker (U.S.A.), the latter representing the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies ( WFNS) . The proposal was finally reviewed in New York on 30 November, 1967, by the members of the Executive Committee of the ILAE, who were joined by Earl Walker.