Introduction: The prognosis of epilepsy is essentially determined by its aetiology and a poorer prognosis is generally associated with an early onset of the seizures.
Patients and methods: In this study we review our experience in epilepsies in children born after 1st January 1997 and who had their first acute non-symptomatic seizure before 31st March 2007 and between the ages of 3 and 12 months. Special attention is given to the analysis of cases of remote non-symptomatic epilepsies.
Results: Of the children born in that period, 267 were diagnosed with epilepsy, and the first seizure occurred between 3 and 12 months of age in 69 cases: 39 of which were symptomatic and 30 were cryptogenic and idiopathic epilepsies. West's syndrome/childhood spasms were observed in 20 cases (17 of the symptomatic cases and three of the cryptogenic and idiopathic patients). The cryptogenic and idiopathic cases were divided into three groups depending on their electroencephalogram pattern: nine generalised, 18 with no generalised alterations and three hypsarrhythmias. In addition, the three groups were analysed taking into account three degrees of psychomotor development: normal, slight retardation and moderate/severe retardation. None of the non-generalised cases presented severe psychomotor retardation, whereas 78% of the generalised and 33% of those with West's syndrome developed an important degree of retardation in their course.
Conclusions: Our experience is compatible with the existence of epilepsies that have their onset in the early months of life and a good prognosis, which is important when it comes to the information and therapeutic approaches in cases of remote non-symptomatic epilepsy.