[Electroclinical and developmental aspects of epilepsy in the aphasia-epilepsy syndrome]

76 children are studied--66 from the literature and 10 from a personal series--who developed epileptic seizures, paroxysmal EEG abnormalities and language deterioration after a period of normal development of language. The clinical features of the fits, the age at which the seizures appear and disappear, the age of the EEG normalization and the normal clinical and radiological examinations were reminiscent of partial benign epilepsies of childhood. Shortly after the language deteriorates, the awake EEG exhibits slow spikes that are diffuse or predominate in the temporal areas, sometimes asymmetrically. During sleep, the paroxysmal abnormalities are clearly bilateral and continuous or subcontinuous. Spontaneously or under medications, the intensity of the paroxysmal abnormalities decreases before clinical improvement occurs. In comparison with the mutism resulting from acquired hearing loss, it is suggested that the language disturbances in these children result from a functional disorganization of the language centers due to the important intercritical EEG abnormalities. In some children, these functional disturbances could result from a benign epilepsy. This view leads to discuss the prognosis and the therapeutic possibilities.