Background. Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is the commonest cause of childhood acquired epilepsy in developing countries. The use of cysticidal therapy in NCC, except "single lesion NCC," is still debated in view of its doubtful usefulness and potential adverse effects. Methods. Children presenting with first episode of seizure or acute focal neurological deficit without fever were screened for NCC a...

PURPOSE A proportion of patients with childhood and juvenile absence epilepsies (CAE, JAE) are likely to be classified as medically refractory. In view of evidence gap for the treatment of such patients, this series is reported to generate estimate for efficacy of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) in this patient population. METHODS Patients were identified by a chart review of all VNS recipients...

BACKGROUND Genetic rat models for childhood absence epilepsy have become instrumental in developing theories on the origin of absence epilepsy, the evaluation of new and experimental treatments, as well as in developing new methods for automatic seizure detection, prediction, and/or interference of seizures. METHOD Various methods for automated off and on-line analyses of ECoG in rodent model...

AIM To compare the therapeutic efficacy of intramuscular midazolam (MDZ-IM) with that of intravenous diazepam (DZP-IV) for seizures in children. DESIGN Randomized clinical trial. SETTING Pediatric emergency department. PATIENTS Children aged 2 months to 14 years admitted to the study facility with seizures. INTERVENTION Patients were randomized to receive DZP-IV or MDZ-IM. MAIN MEASUR...

OBJECTIVE About one third of partial seizures are refractory to treatment. Several anticonvulsant drugs have entered the market in recent decades but concerns about intolerance, drug interactions, and the safety of the drug are notable. One of these new anticonvulsants is pregabalin, a safe drug with almost no interaction with other antiepileptic drugs. METHODS In this open label clinical tri...

OBJECTIVE To explore the course of epilepsy following relapse after antiepileptic drug (AED) withdrawal. METHODS Forty two patients were identified with onset of epilepsy in childhood in whom AEDs had been withdrawn after at least 2 years of seizure freedom, and in whom a relapse had occurred. Two patients were lost to follow up. RESULTS Median follow up after AED withdrawal was 5.9 years (...

The medium chain triglyceride (MCT) ketogenic diet is used extensively for treating refractory childhood epilepsy. This diet increases the plasma levels of medium straight chain fatty acids. A role for these and related fatty acids in seizure control has not been established. We compared the potency of an established epilepsy treatment, Valproate (VPA), with a range of MCT diet-associated fatty...

Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is one of the major causes of childhood seizures in developing countries including India and Latin America. In this study neurological pediatric cases presenting with afebrile seizures were screened for anti-Cysticercus antibodies (IgG) in their sera in order to estimate the possible burden of cysticercal etiology. The study included a total of 61 pediatric afebrile sei...

Epilepsy is a common disorder of childhood occurring with an incidence in the range 46–60 out of 100,000 in the Western world. It is most common in the fi rst year of life, and declines progressively after the age of 10 years. Based on clinical and electrophysiologic fi ndings, two main forms of epilepsy are recognized: localization-related (partial) and generalized. The question of ‘when to tr...