Semiology of epileptic seizures: A critical review

Epileptic seizures are characterized by a variety of symptoms. Their typical semiology served for a long time as the major tool to classify epilepsy syndromes. The signs and symptoms of epileptic seizures include the following spheres: sensorial sphere, consciousness, motor and autonomic spheres. Most seizures involve more than one sphere, however, some like for instance aura (sensorial sphere) or dialeptic seizures (consciousness) involve only one sphere. The predominant clinical features of a seizure determines the seizure classification. The following review gives an introduction into the semiological seizure classification. This approach enables us to better identify the epileptogenic zone of our patients and to choose the most effective medical or surgical treatment. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.