[Brain stem seizures (author's transl)]

Paroxysmal symptoms of frequent recurrence and short duration occurring mostly unilaterally and without loss of consciousness have been described under a vast variety of headings. Brain stem origin of these symptoms was presumed. Electroencephalographic recordings usually did not show any paroxysmal discharges. 328 patients were found in the available literature including 9 patients of ours. The seizures were classified by their appearance. Tonic or dystonic, sensory, algetic, ataxic and akinetic-atonic fits were distinguished. The dystonic variety includes the "paroxysmal kinesiogenic choreoathetosis". The "paroxysmal dysarthria and ataxia" was subsumed under the ataxic type. By etiology, seizures were grouped into the cryptogenic and the symptomatic type. The symptomatic variety is frequently caused by multiple sclerosis, and rarely by tumours of the basal ganglia or by vascular disorders. Cranial computertomography showed subcortical lesions in three out of seven patients. In one case cerebral atrophy was found. All types of seizures respond very well to antiepileptic drugs. The prognosis is favourable with the cryptogenic type and unfavourable with the symptomatic variety depending on the underlying disease.