Long-term Prognosis of Childhood Absence Epilepsy

We aimed to investigate the long-term prognosis of childhood absence epilepsy (CAE), and identify factors associated with treatment outcomes.

Patients with a definitive diagnosis of CAE according to the International League Against Epilepsy 2021 criteria and with a minimum of 3-year follow-up duration were included. The children were divided according to the time of seizure control. Early seizure remission was defined as seizure freedom within 6 months after the treatment onset.

Twenty-four patients with a mean age of 13.7 (9.4-22.0) were included in this study. At the final follow-up, all patients were seizure-free except for one case. Seizure freedom was achieved after initial treatment in a mean of 0.78 years. The treatment was ceased in 19 children (79.2%) after a mean of 3.2 years. Patients having absence seizures without motor components had a higher rate of early seizure remission (p=0.026). In 81.3% of the patients; all of whose repetitive post-treatment EEGs were devoid of any generalized spike-wave discharges and absence seizures; remission was established within 6 months or less (p=0.026).

CAE has a favorable prognosis with seizure control obtained in the majority of the cases and more than half of them were obtained within 6 months following the initiation of treatment. Moreover, having an absence seizure without motor components and repetitively normal post-treatment EEGs appear to be associated with a higher rate of early seizure remission.