Epilepsy in children with Down syndrome: not so benign as generally accepted

Down syndrome (DS) is one of the most common causes of mental retardation in children. Many children with DS suffer from neurologic problems, including seizures. Epileptic spasms (ES) are the most frequently reported seizure type. As in the general epilepsy population, ES are rather difficult to control with anti-epileptic drugs. Different treatment regimens have been proposed in the literature, most of them containing vigabatrin or steroids. We present 12 children with DS, who were seen and treated at the Antwerp University Hospital because of seizures. Eight of them presented with ES. Different treatment regimens were used, with varying outcome. This article summarizes our experience with epilepsy in children with DS, describing the different treatment options that were used. We found a poor outcome in these children, compared to most previous reports. Although steroids play an important role in the treatment of ES worldwide, we found a low success rate (8.3 %) of these drugs.