Benign Childhood Epilepsy with Centrotemporal Spikes (Rolandic) in Birjand City of Iranian Patients

Benign epilepsy of childhood with rolandic spikes (BECRS) is the most common childhood epilepsy syndrome and its e pidemiological studies are of importance primarily to compare incidence and prevalence rates, age distribution, inheritance, seizure types, and treatment strategies in different populations. In this investigation we studied clinical and paraclinical aspects of Rolandic epilepsy. Between 2002 and 2007, 67 patients of Iranian nation in east of Iran, were studied retrospectively in Vali-e-Asr and Imam Reza hospitals in Birjand. All patients had first seizure between the age of 3 and 12 years and all of them were normal in neurologic exam without any sign of focal CNS lesion. Our study included only the patients who had definite past medical history with at least one EEG each six months. In this study 37 cases (55.2%) were male and 30 cases (44.8%) were female. 30% of our patients (20 cases) had no further seizures after the age of 5 years. 42 cases (63%) had complete recovery by age of 12 years and all cases had complete recovery by age of 18. 53 cases (79.1%) of patients had only partial seizures while 20.9% (14 cases) had secondary generalization of focal seizure. In their paraclinic survey, epileptic discharges were confined to one hemisphere in 28 [1] patients (41.8%) but in 39 cases (58.2%) epileptic discharges were seen bilaterally in two hemispheres. Our study showed that Rolandic seizure (BRE) is more prevalent in males than females, but sex difference was not significant. Responding to CBZ (Carbamazepine) was excellent (62 cases (92.5%)) but 5 cases (7.5%) not responded to CBZ or didnt tolerate it but had good response to sodium valproate. In regarding to BRE two aspects are of importance first, this disorder is confined to active period of learning life, and its bad control can result in profound difficulty in later life and second, the disorder can easily be controlled with simple antiepileptic drugs without any side effect.