Patterson A, Woodroffe S, Sadler RM. Unilateral abdominal clonic jerking as an epileptic phenomenon.
Epilepsy Behav Rep 2021;
16:100480. [PMID:
34647004 PMCID:
PMC8495099 DOI:
10.1016/j.ebr.2021.100480]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2021] [Revised: 08/29/2021] [Accepted: 08/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
We report three cases of focal aware seizures presenting as unilateral abdominal clonic motor movements.
One of these cases is the first seizure manifesting as unilateral abdominal clonic motor movements with simultaneous intracranial electrode recording in the literature, and demonstrates the utility of intracranial EEG in the diagnosis.
The symptomatic zone of seizures presenting as unilateral abdominal clonic motor movements is felt to be in an anatomically restricted area of the abdominal region of the motor homunculus.
A careful clinical history is important in the assessment of this seizure type, and the diagnosis is ideally established with video-EEG.
Unilateral abdominal wall clonic seizures are a rare manifestation of epilepsy. We report three cases of focal aware seizures manifesting as unilateral abdominal clonic motor movements. Standard EEG for patients with focal motor abdominal seizures is often unrevealing, which can make the diagnosis difficult. We report the first case of intracranial EEG in the diagnosis of a patients with this type of semiology during a focal seizure. In the absence of an electroclinical seizure verified by video-EEG monitoring, caution should be made with the diagnosis. A careful history should be obtained to help differentiate between unilateral abdominal clonic jerking and other abdominal complaints.
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