Clinical, neuroradiological, and electroencephalographic findings of reflex epilepsies

Abstract

Background/aim: Reflex seizures are defined as epilepsies with seizures induced by a specific afferent stimulus or patient activity aloneor in combination with spontaneous seizures, and/or accompanied by photoparoxysmal response on electroencephalogram (EEG). Theaim of this study is to review and analyze clinical, neuroradiological, and EEG findings in reflex epilepsies. Materials and methods: The records of 1598 follow-up patients out of 2237 patients who had been examined between July 1995 andAugust 2017 were analyzed retrospectively. Results: Eighty of 1598 patients had reflex epilepsy and 72 of those patients had seizures induced by visual stimuli. Considering thesomatosensory stimuli, in one patient it was associated with eating while in 7 patients it was associated with hot water. The results ofneurological examination were normal in 90% while cranial imaging was normal in 82.5% of the patients. Only 53 of 80 patients’ EEGsrevealed pathological EEG findings. Furthermore, in 43 patients, the most frequently prescribed drug was valproate.Conclusion: In this hospital-based study, reflex epilepsy frequency was 5% and cranial imaging was mostly found to be normal, as statedin the literature. However, patient histories revealed an unexpectedly high rate of head trauma before seizure onset and a family historyof epilepsy.