OBJECTIVETo evaluate the therapeutic effect of methylprednisolone for electrical status epilepticus during sleep (ESES) in children.

METHODThe clinical and EEG data of 82 epilepsy patients with ESES, which included benign childhood epilepsy with centro temporal spikes (BECT) variants, epilepsy with continuous spikes and waves during slow sleep (CSWS) , Landau-Kleffner syndrome (LKS) collected from department of pediatrics, Peking University First Hospital were analyzed from July 2007 to September 2012. During ESES period, all patients received methylprednisolone treatment for three courses, which included methylprednisolone intravenous infusion for three days, followed by oral prednisone for four days every time. After three courses, prednisone [1-2 mg/(kg × d)] were taken by all patients for 6 months. The ESES phenomenon and seizures were observed before and after treatment. The efficacy of corticosteroid on ESES suppression, seizure control of three epilepsy syndrome were analyzed.

RESULTThirty-nine cases were male and 43 cases were female. The epilepsy syndromes included 49 patients diagnosed as benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spike (BECT) variants, 27 patients diagnosed as epilepsy with continuous spikes and waves during slow sleep (CSWS), and 6 patients diagnosed as LKS. Age of onset ranged from 1 year and 4 months to 11 years. The age of ESES newly monitored was from 2 years to 10 years and 8 months. The total effective rate of corticosteroid was 83% (68/82) for ESES, BECT variants was 82% (40/49), CSWS was 81% (22/27), LKS was 100% (6/6). There was no statistically significant difference in effective rates between the front two (χ² = 0.09, P > 0.05). The seizures were improved in the first month after methylprednisolone treatment in 3 epilepsy syndromes. The recurrence rate of BECT variants was 47% (23/49) , CSWS was 59% (16/27) , LKS was 50% (3/6) after 1 year follow up. There was no association between disease parameters, including age at seizure onset, duration of ESES and the treatment effect of ESES examined by Kruskal-Wallis method (χ² = 3.585, 0.932, P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONMethylprednisolone was effective for improving ESES and seizures in 3 epilepsy syndromes combined with ESES. There was no significant correlation between age at seizure onset, duration of ESES and treatment effect of ESES.