HWN Suggests

Benign Rolandic Epilepsy, Thank Goodness

It came seemingly out of nowhere; to our knowledge, she’d never had one before. (I referred to it then as a grand mal seizure, but I now know it was actually what’s called a tonic-clonic seizure.) The weeks that followed made us feel like we were traveling through a maze characterized by a set of unmarked doors at each turn. Each door we opened only led to rooms with more doors, and we feared as we moved forward that our ultimate destination would turn out to be a dark, ominous place.

But we were lucky.

The maze of diagnostic tests and consultations led to us to the room of benign rolandic epilepsy, something none of us had heard of before. Given all of the terrifying possibilities…

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Articles of Interest

A Review of the Not So Benign- Benign Childhood Epilepsy with Centrotemporal Spikes

Benign childhood focal seizures and related idiopathic epileptic syndromes affect approximately 22% of children with non-febrile seizures and constitute a significant part of day to day practice of paediatric physicians and neurologists.

Experiencing Benign Rolandic Epilepsy

The seizures continued – always after Ashley was in bed for the night... Witnessing the seizures was just awful. Afterwards, she would be able to tell us that she could feel them coming on, but was already non-verbal and wasn’t able to yell to get our attention. I would always hear her and rush to her bedside and just sit with her through them. Sometimes being a parent can be a very helpless feeling.

Is ″benign Childhood Epilepsy with Centrotemporal Spikes″ Always Benign?

Although this disorder was once thought of as a universally benign syndrome, increasing evidence suggests that a subpopulation of children may present with recent impairment of overall cognitive functioning, or difficulties with visual perception, concentration, and short-term memory. Like all forms of epilepsy, BRE results in seizures. The seizures are usually mild.

Wanting Answers, Finding Questions

Dreaded parenting moment: there is something wrong with your kid and you don’t know what it is.

Resources

Epilepsy Foundation

Benign childhood focal seizures are the most common and probably the most fascinating and rewarding topic in pediatric epileptology. They affect 25% of children with non-febrile seizures. Seizures are infrequent, usually nocturnal, and remit within 1 to 3 years from onset. Brief or prolonged seizures, even status epilepticus, may be the only clinical event of the patient's lifetime