Epilepsy in children with cerebral palsy

This was a prospective analytical study done from October'99 through December 2000 to observe the clinical profile of epilepsy in children with cerebral palsy. Sixty epileptic children with cerebral palsy were studied and their results were compared with the results of epilepsy in 30 developmentally normal children. Ages of all children studied were 1-15 years. Majority were below five years of age and male out numbered female. Spastic quadriplegia (60%) was the commonest type of cerebral palsy. Generalized tonic-clonic seizure (66%) was the commonest seizure type in both groups. Second most common type of seizure was partial (13%) and myoclonic (29%) in developmentally normal and cerebral palsy children respectively. Mental retardation (63%) and speech delay (58%) were the two common associated problems in cerebral palsy patients. Ventriculomegaly (55%) was the commonest computed tomographic findings in cerebral palsy patients. In electro encephalography generalized epileptiform activity was the commonest finding in both groups. Clinical pattern is different in many ways when epilepsy is associated with cerebral palsy.