| Summary: | Olga An,1 Lidia Mayumi Nagae,2 Steven Parrish Winesett3 1Department of Children’s Diseases, Kazakhstan’s Medical University “KSPH” - School of Public Health, Almaty, Kazakhstan; 2Department of Medical Imaging, Neuroradiology, Banner University Medical Center, Tucson, AZ, USA; 3Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Neurology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USACorrespondence: Olga AnDepartment of Children’s Diseases, Kazakhstan’s Medical University “KSPH”, 19 a, Utepov st., Almaty, KazakhstanTel +7 707 101-5023Email a.olga@ksph.kzBackground: Cerebral palsy is the most frequent motor disability in childhood and is associated with a higher incidence of seizure disorders. In many instances, it is recognized that motor difficulties, as well as seizures, are from the same underlying brain lesion. However, self-limited childhood epilepsies, being a common group of epilepsy syndromes, would be expected to occur in patients with cerebral palsy merely on chance association and be unrelated to the structural brain imaging abnormality causing the motor impairment. Differential diagnosis in this case is important determining the long-term prognosis and need for anticonvulsant treatment.Case Presentation: Here, we report two patients with cerebral palsy combined with epilepsy, whose age at onset, seizure semiology and electroclinical features were similar to children with self-limited childhood-specific seizure disorders (childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes and Panayiotopoulos syndrome).Conclusion: These cases highlight the importance of comprehensive differential diagnosis of seizures in cerebral palsy. Co-existence of age-dependent focal epilepsies with an underlying brain pathology as white matter injury, not affecting the cerebral cortex, might take place in the case of children with impaired motor skills. With health systems increasingly utilizing clinical pathways, it is important to consider the possibility of a self-limited childhood epilepsy and avoid aggressive and unnecessary medication treatment in children with cerebral palsy.Keywords: childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes, CECTS, Panayiotopoulos syndrome, cerebral palsy, white matter injury
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