[Familial benign neonatal seizures: EEG, clinical, prognosis and genetic features]

The authors describe 3 families in which several members presented convulsions exclusively during the neonatal period. The EEG and clinical findings showed typical short neonatal convulsions lasting several months and with no apparent etiology. The dominantly inherited transmission is certain. Prognosis is very good, although 14% of the cases in the literature present an onset of epilepsy after 20 years of age. Even though this phenomenon is unusual, the rarity of its description probably stems from lack of knowledge rather than low incidence. We thus would like to show that, even in the neonatal period, familial epilepsy can occur.