Clinical predictors of intractable childhood epilepsy

Objective: This study aimed to determine the clinical, electroencephalographic, and radiological factors associated with medically intractable seizures in children in the Al Ain Medical District in the United Arab Emirates. Methods: This work used a prospective case-control study of children referred to pediatric neurology and neurodevelopmental clinics at Tawam and Al Ain University Hospitals. Results: There were 55 children with intractable epilepsy; their data were compared with 50 children who responded well to antiepileptic drugs and who were seizure-free for at least 2 years. Onset < 1 year of age, a high seizure frequency at onset, positive history of neonatal seizures, developmental delay and status epilepticus, neurological deficits, and abnormal brain imaging results were found to be significantly more common in the study group. Symptomatic localization-related epilepsy was more common in children in this group than in the control group. Conclusion: Our study suggests that children who present with idiopathic localization-related and generalized epilepsy syndromes with few seizures at onset and with no neurological deficits tend to have a relatively good prognosis. (C) 2006 Published by Elsevier Inc.