What is Epileptic syndrome
Epileptic syndrome is a constellation of signs and symptoms that may be associated with certain acquired pathologies or etiologies (symptomatic or structural/metabolic), lack an identifiable pathology or etiology (cryptogenic or unknown), or are likely genetic and follow a well-defined and accepted characteristic pattern (idiopathic or genetic).
Syndromes may be associated with focal seizures that begin in one area of the cortex (such as mesial temporal sclerosis) or generalized seizures that appear throughout the cortex at onset (such as childhood absence epilepsy).
Syndromic classification is useful because it can often predict prognosis and guide antiepileptic drug therapy.
The most recent list of epilepsy syndromes is found at the International League Against Epilepsy website ( http://www.ilae-epilepsy.org ).
