The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of seizures descriptions from parents and guardians of epileptic children which are useful for clinical classification of epileptic seizures. The data were obtained from 112 children using recurrent and spontaneous epileptic seizures as the selection criteria. The study was realized in two parts. In the part I the following aspects were studied: age of onset and the preictal, ictal and postictal symptoms. In the part II the specific kinds of seizures were classified by motor semiology, as convulsive and nonconvulsive, and by using the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE,1981) scheme. The results showed that 42.9% patients present epileptic auras and 36.6% present lateralizing signs. Concerning the semiologic events were motor in 95.5%, neurovegetative in 56.3%, psychic in 32.1%, and neurosensorials in 4.5%. Finally, the ILAE schema classified the seizures as partial in 59.9%, as generalized in 27.2%, and as not classified in 12.5%. All findings demonstrate a good level of clinical semiology information from parents and guardians that allow us to classify 87.5% of the seizures, and identify auras and lateralized signs. Theses results permit us to conclud that if a standard protocol is used, the descriptions from parents and guardian of epileptic children appears to be very reliable to clinical classification of epileptic seizure.
epilepsy; childhood epileptic seizure; classification; parents clinical discriptions; symptomatology
