Benign infantile focal epilepsy with midline spikes and waves during sleep

Definition

Benign infantile focal epilepsy with midline spikes and waves during sleep is a rare infantile epilepsy syndrome characterized by age of onset between 4 and 30 months, partial sporadic seizures presenting with motion arrest, staring, cyanosis and, less common, automatisms and lateralizing signs, and characteristic interictal sleep EEG changes consisting of a spike followed by a bell-shaped slow wave in the midline region.