Epilepsy with continuous spike and waves in slow sleep (SPWSS)

Abstract

The electrical status during slow sleep is a rare electroclinical picture that is characterized by the association of several types of partial or generalized epileptic seizures which almost always occurring during sleep and due to the existence of atypical absences in awakeness and an electroencephalographic pattern formed by diffuse and continues peak-wave complexes which should occupy at least 85% of the tracing and which appear months or years after the first seizure, that is, during sleep, there should be a poor electric state without accompanying symptoms. Within the picture, there are different neuropsychological disorders that generally reoccur and the disappearance of the seizures and EEG normalization between 8 and 15 years of age. We describe the case of a female child who was admitted to hospital due to generalized seizure episode and in whose evolution, partial and unilateral seizures and atypical absences with both focal and generalized abnormalities in the EEG and an electrical status with continuos and generalized peak-wave in sleep in the beginning that led to the diagnosis of epilepsy with continuous peak-wave during sleep.