Partial Epilepsy

Abstract

EPILEPSY was defined by John Hughlings Jackson¹ as a sudden, excessive, rapid, and localized electrical discharge by gray matter from some part of the brain. This definition is still accepted today with respect to partial (or focal-onset) seizures. The physiologic phenomenon associated with partial seizures is the paroxysmal depolarization^{2 , 3} of the neuronal membrane in a local group of neurons, which corresponds temporally to the finding of a focal spike and wave complex on the electroencephalogram. This mechanism differs from those proposed in the primary (or generalized) types of epilepsy, with or without tonic or clonic phases or absences. In the . . .