Autonomic Epilepsy Reviewed

In addition to gastointestinal manifestations of epilepsy, a review of autonomic epilepsies from the Deaconess and Beth Israel Hospitals and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, included cardiovascular manifestations, sudden cardiac death, neurogenic pulmonary edema and other respiratory manifestations, diencephalic epilepsy, cutaneous manifestations, and urogenital manifestations. Gastrointestinal symptoms of epilepsy present as auras in adult patients with complex partial seizures, but ictal autonomic symptoms may be limited to visceral sensations, called abdominal epilepsy, especially in children. EEG abnormalities associated with ictal vomiting usually lateralize to the right or nondominant temporal lobe. [1]