Epilepsy secondary to schizencephaly: A comparative study

Abstract

Schizencephaly is an uncommon structural disorder of cerebral cortical development. There are few comparative studies evaluating epilepsy in that condition. The aim of this study is to analyze which factors are associated with the development of epilepsy in patients with schizencephaly. The study is a longitudinal, observational and comparative retrospective study of 35 pediatric patients with schizencephaly. The patients were divided into two groups: a group of 10 children who developed epilepsy and another group of 25 who had no clinical epileptic manifestations. Both groups were followed up and the data collected to analyze potential risk factors included demographic and prenatal data (prenatal event, family history of epilepsy), radiological features (location of the cleft, unilateral or bilateral, extent of the lesion, number of impaired lobes, open-lip or closed-lip types, presence of associated anomalies), and neurological and electroencephalographic data. No significant difference was found in the association between epilepsy and any of the examined factors (P > 0.05). Neither the features of the lesion (cleft size location, type of lip, number of impaired lobes, associated anomalies), nor electroencephalography abnormalities, nor the family history of epilepsy or prenatal events could predict the occurrence of epilepsy in patients with schizencephaly.