[Neonatal familial benign convulsions].

BACKGROUND

Some neonatal benign convulsions are genetic in origin, with a dominant mode of inheritance.

METHODS

A girl was placed on continuous EEG recording from her 2d day of life because of her family history. The first clonic seizures occurred on the 4th day; they appeared again on the 6th day and became prolonged with an abnormal EEG pattern. The seizures were well controlled with phenobarbital, that was gradually discontinued when the child was 3 months old. Seizures occurred again when she was 4 months old and were again controlled with phenobarbital. Her father had had neonatal convulsions which were not well analysed. Her brother also had clonic seizures at the 4th day of life; they disappeared after 1 month. Her sister suffered from clonic seizures when she was 3 days old, and these became prolonged. She was given phenobarbital until she was 1 year old. She developed benign rolandic epilepsy at the age of 10 years.

CONCLUSIONS

This family suffers from neonatal familial benign convulsions and rolandic epilepsy. The frequency of neonatal familial benign epilepsy is probably under-estimated.