Introduction: We aimed to investigate the long-term prognosis of
childhood absence epilepsy (CAE), and identify factors associated with
treatment outcomes.
Methods: Patients with a definitive diagnosis of CAE according to
International League Against Epilepsy 2021 criteria and with a minimum
of 3-year follow-up duration were included. The children were divided
according to the time of seizure control. Early seizure remission was
defined as seizure freedom within 6 months after the treatment onset.
Results: Twenty-four patients with a mean age of 13.7 (9.4–22.0) were
included in this study. At the final follow-up, all patients were seizure-free
except for one case. Seizure freedom was achieved after initial treatment
in a mean of 0.78 years. The treatment was ceased in 19 children (79.2%)
after a mean of 3.2 years. Patients having absence seizures without motor
components had a higher rate of early seizure remission (p=0.026). In
81.3% of the patients; all of whose repetitive post-treatment EEGs were
devoid of any generalized spike-wave discharges and absence seizures;
remission was established within 6 months or less (p=0.026).
Conclusions: CAE has a favorable prognosis with seizure control obtained
in the majority of the cases and more than half of them were obtained
within 6 months following the initiation of treatment. Moreover, having
an absence seizure without motor components and repetitively normal
post-treatment EEGs appear to be associated with a higher rate of early
seizure remission.
Keywords: Absence epilepsy, child, electroencephalography, prognosis