A six year old right handed boy with prolonged intermittent drooling, oromotor dyspraxia, and benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes is reported from the Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology, Centre Hospitalier, Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland. Seizures began on the third day of life and were controlled with phenobarbital. Febrile seizures began at eight months and recurred 12 times up to six years of age. At first the seizures were generalized but after four years of age they were partial motor, involving the face and sometimes the right arm. The drooling probably resulted from hypersalivation and oromotor dyspraxia. The fluctuant course of the symptoms and correlation with intensity of the paroxysmal discharges on EEG were consistent with an epileptic dysfunction located in the lower rolandic fissure. No lesion was demonstrated by MRI. [1]

COMMENT. This case provides evidence that a continuous epileptic dysfunction can occur in benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes. The case resembles the acquired aphasia epilepsy syndrome of Landau-Kleffner.