Benign epilepsy with central temporal spikes is also known as benign childhood epilepsy, or also known as benign Rolandic epilepsy in children.
It is the most common form of partial epilepsy in childhood, with normal psychomotor development and normal neurological and neuroimaging examinations. 70-80% of seizures occur during sleep, often shortly after falling asleep or upon awakening in the early morning, and manifest as localized sensorimotor seizures of the mouth and face, which may involve the ipsilateral upper limbs or begin with jerking of one hand and upper limb, and occasionally the lower limbs. Focal seizures can progress to impaired consciousness or rapidly extend to generalized seizures. 13-21% of children have only one seizure, and about 20% have frequent seizures. A variety of antiepileptic drugs have been shown to have satisfactory efficacy. Commonly used drugs include valproic acid, carbamazepine, phenytoin sodium, phenobarbital, etc. Most cases have good results with monotherapy. The vast majority of seizures do not exceed 16 years of age, and treatment is appropriate for 2-4 years, or the EEG returns to normal as an indication for discontinuation. The majority of BECT cases have a good final prognosis, with very few recurrences after seizure termination and a recurrence rate of only 1-2% in adulthood. The EEG abnormalities in BECT will eventually disappear. EEG normalization is usually about 2 years later than the termination of clinical seizures. As the patient ages, the clinical seizures gradually terminate and the EEG abnormalities gradually improve, first manifesting as a decrease in the amplitude of spikes and sharp waves until they disappear. There are usually no neurological abnormalities and the intelligence examination is in the normal range.