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Epileptic Disorders

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Alcohol-responsive epilepsia partialis continua Volume 16, numéro 1, March 2014

Vidéo

  • Alcohol-responsive epilepsia partialis continua

Illustrations


  • Figure 1

  • Figure 2
Auteurs
Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
* Correspondence: Donald W Gross 2E3.19 Walter Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre, 8440 112 St NW, Edmonton T6G 2B7, Canada

Epilepsia partialis continua is typically associated with lesions of the cerebral cortex. However, subcortical lesions can also cause this condition. We present a patient with epilepsia partialis continua who failed to respond to conventional anticonvulsant medications but experienced a dramatic transient response to alcohol and a subsequent response to primidone. This pattern of sensitivity, which is similar to that seen in essential tremor, has led to the hypothesis that the two disorders are associated with pathology within the same anatomical network. A new pathophysiological model is thus proposed for the occurrence of epilepsia partialis continua in both cortical and subcortical disease processes. [Published with video sequences]