[Computerized tomography in epilepsy in children].

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Neurology
• Neuroradiology

Background:

• Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder in children.
• Computed tomography (CT) is a diagnostic tool used in evaluating pediatric epilepsy.
• The utility of CT scans in children with epilepsy requires further elucidation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the incidence of CT abnormalities in children with epilepsy.
• To correlate CT findings with clinical features in pediatric epilepsy patients.
• To determine the impact of CT scan results on the management of childhood epilepsy.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective study of 160 children with epilepsy.
• Computed tomography (CT) performed on 123 patients (excluding febrile seizures, typical absence seizures, and benign Rolandic epilepsy).
• Analysis of CT scan results, including normal and abnormal findings, and their correlation with clinical presentation.

Main Results:

• CT scans were performed on 77% of the pediatric epilepsy patients.
• 84 out of 123 CT scans were normal, while 39 showed abnormalities.
• A small percentage (2%) of patients had surgically treatable lesions identified by CT.

Conclusions:

• CT scan abnormalities are detected in a significant proportion of children with epilepsy.
• While CT findings rarely alter management, they can identify surgically treatable lesions in a small subset of pediatric epilepsy cases.
• The study summarizes indications for CT in the evaluation of childhood epilepsy.