[Paraneoplastic syndrome presenting as epilepsia partialis continua]

We describe a man of 59 years old, a smoker (20 cigarettes per day), without any pathologic background, with epilepsia partialis continua, with a relatively sudden appearance in the last 6 weeks. We wanted to find the cause of these prolonged focal seizures. The initial diagnosis of emergency was that of right side hemiballismus. The initial diagnosis on admission was prolonged right brachial myoclonus. Initially I was thinking of primary tumor or secondary one but paraclinic examinations excluded this diagnosis. After 5 months I repeated cerebral MRI scan which revealed left neoplasm of cavum. After another 6 months head and neck MRI described left rhinopharyngeal neoplasm with laterocervical adenopathies, cerebral metastases secondary to bronchopulmonary cancer with mediastinal invasion. The epilepsia partialis continua preceded by one year the primary neoplastic process.