Clinical course and prognosis of childhood epilepsy

Remarkable progress has been accomplished in epileptology in recent years. The remission rate in childhood epilepsy has been improved by the introduction of new technologies and better diagnostic as well as therapeutic methods. Investigation of prognosis is an important field of epileptology, because prognostic improvement reflects its overall progress. A long-term follow-up study of childhood epilepsy was undertaken in the Okayama University Hospital. Ten to 15 years of follow-up was possible in 730 of 1,295 patients who were first diagnosed at ages below 15 years, from 1968 to 1971. The 3-year remission rate amounted to 82.0% and 5-year remission was obtained in 79.1%. These high rates of remission indicate the favorable prognosis of childhood epilepsy. On the other hand, cases of intractable epilepsy also amounted to a considerable number. Intractable epilepsy consisted mainly of age-dependent epileptic encephalopathy (Ohtahara's syndrome, West syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome) and severe myoclonic epilepsy in infancy. Development of effective therapy for these intractable epileptic syndromes will be an important subject of future studies.