[Epilepsy: classification for a diagnostic approach based on aetiology and complexities]

In our teaching experience we have had to resort to certain tools that allow the student, physician and specialist to carry out a timely diagnosis in order to be able to establish the most accurate treatment possible, with a view to offering the patient a better prognosis.

Hence, based on the different classifications elaborated by the International League against Epilepsy since the sixties, we have designed a system of classification according to the patient record and the symptomatology of the seizures that enables us to distinguish primary epilepsies from secondary ones. Accordingly, we can focus on epileptic syndromes versus neurological syndromes with epilepsy, grouping them together in four subgroups, depending on their complexity: primary (I: age; II: not age) and secondary (III: sequelae; IV: surgical and medical diseases). The clinical presentation (divided into mild, moderate, severe and catastrophic symptoms) is then added, without neglecting the genetic substrate in all cases, to be able to differentiate the naming of the nosology.

On behalf of the Bogota Central League against Epilepsy, we outline this tool so that it can be applied in teaching and in medical practice for this group of patients.