Benign Familial Neonatal Seizures

Benign Familial Neonatal Seizures (BFNS) occur in normal newborns without perinatal neurological damage or metabolic abnormalities in the setting of a positive family history for neonatal seizures. This autosomal dominant disorder has an excellent prognosis, in contrast to most other causes of neonatal convulsions. This paper points out the need to include BFNS in the differential diagnosis of neonatal seizures and to specifically seek a family history to avoid an unnecessarily extensive diagnostic evaluation and poor prognostication. We present a family with one atypical and three classic cases. Further study of BFNS may reveal more definitive basic science information leading to the inclusion of variant forms into the currently narrow clinical definition.