Material & Methods

Correspondence Author: Saeed M. MD King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Tel +112162919-32772 Email: [email protected]; [email protected] Introduction Benign Rolandic epilepsy (BRE) or benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) is the most common condition of idiopathic focal epilepsies in children. It is known to be benign because of the absence of neurological deficits, infrequent focal somatosensory or motor seizures predominantly occurring during sleep, reasonable responses to the medication, and spontaneous resolution before the age of 15 to 16 years. BRE is the most common epileptic disorder in childhood with an incidence of Abstract Objective To determine the prevalence of associated behavioral problems and prognosis with Benign Childhood Epilepsy with CentroTemporal Spikes (BCECTS). Descriptive, Cross Sectional study that was conducted from October 2009 to April 2013 in the Department of Pediatric Neurology, the Children’s Hospital Taif, KSA. Material & Methods This study was conducted after approval from the Ethics Committee of the Children’s Hospital Taif, Saudi Arabia. Thirty-two patients from the age of 3 to 10 years old were recruited from the pediatric neurology clinic over a period of 4 years. All the patients were selected based on history, EEGs, and neuropsychological and neurological examinations. EEGs were performed for all the patients while in awake and sleep states. Those who had centrotemporal discharges were included in the study. All the patients also underwent a brain MRI. Only two patients had mild cortical atrophy but developmentally they were normal. Results In our study, prevalence of BRE is 32/430 (7.44%). Among the 32 cases, 24 were male and eight were female. Six cases out of 32 indicated a family history of BRE. Twenty-eight cases had unilateral right sided centrotemporal discharges and four had bilateral discharges. Conclusion It is possible that for BECTS, a high number of seizures might play an important role in the development of mild cognitive impairment and/or behavior disturbances.