[Clinical presentation and diagnosis of epileptic auras]

To define clinical presentations of visual auras and to reveal their clinical, encephalographic and neuroimaging correlates, we examined 23 patients, aged from 5 to 25 years (mean 14±6 years), with focal forms of epilepsy. Patients had visual auras regardless of the etiology of epilepsy which developed immediately before epileptic seizures or were isolated. Patients had simple or complex visual hallucinations, the former occurring more frequently, visual illusions and ictal amaurosis. Positive visual phenomena were noted more frequently than negative ones. In most of the patients, visual hallucinations were associated with the pathological activity in cortical occipital regions of the brain and, in some cases, in temporal and parietal regions. The different pathologies (developmental defects, post-ischemic, atrophic and other disturbances) identified by MRI were found in a half of patients.