[Epileptic seizures as initial symptom of intracranial tumors. A prospective study in adults]

A prospective study of 125 patients with late-onset epileptic crisis: Group G I with 65 cases between 20 and 50 years of age, and Group G II, including 60 patients older than 50 years at the time of the first crisis. Brain tumors were diagnosed in fourteen cases, four (6.1%) in G I and ten (16.6%) in G II. In decreasing order of frequency, the ictal pattern was tonic-clonic, status epilepticus, partial simple, partial complex and "drop-attacks". The lesions were located as follows:frontal in seven subjects, parietal in four, multiple in two and temporo-basal in one. Histologically, the tumors were three meningiomas, two gliomas, one astrocytoma, and three metastatic lesions. These findings agree with those of other series, in terms of predominant type of crisis, site and histologic type; but they differ in the age of first symptoms, and in the fact that tumors occupy only a third place as cause of epileptic crisis.