National Center for Advancing and Translational Sciences Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center, a program of the National Center for Advancing and Translational Sciences

Epilepsy, benign occipital


Other Names:
BOE; Benign occipital epilepsy
The following summary is from Orphanet, a European reference portal for information on rare diseases and orphan drugs.
orphanet

Orpha Number: 25968

Definition
Benign occipital epilepsy is a rare, genetic neurological disorder characterized by visual seizures and occipital epileptiform paroxysms reactive to ocular opening which present in infancy to mid-adolescence. Vomiting, tonic eye deviation and impairment of consciousness are typically associated with the Panayiotopoulos type, while visual hallucinations, ictal blindness and post-ictal headache are commonly observed in the Gastaut type. Electroencephalographic findings in both types are similar and include bilateral, synchronous, high voltage spike-wave complexes in a normal background activity located predominantly in the occipital lobes.

Visit the Orphanet disease page for more resources.
Last updated: 4/1/2018

This table lists symptoms that people with this disease may have. For most diseases, symptoms will vary from person to person. People with the same disease may not have all the symptoms listed. This information comes from a database called the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) . The HPO collects information on symptoms that have been described in medical resources. The HPO is updated regularly. Use the HPO ID to access more in-depth information about a symptom.

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Medical Terms Other Names
Learn More:
HPO ID
80%-99% of people have these symptoms
EEG with occipital focal spike waves 0012011
Focal impaired awareness seizure 0002384
30%-79% of people have these symptoms
Headache
Headaches
0002315
Visual gaze preference 0025518
Visual hallucinations 0002367
Vomiting
Throwing up
0002013
Percent of people who have these symptoms is not available through HPO
Autosomal dominant inheritance 0000006
EEG abnormality 0002353
Seizure 0001250
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Last updated: 7/1/2020

If you need medical advice, you can look for doctors or other healthcare professionals who have experience with this disease. You may find these specialists through advocacy organizations, clinical trials, or articles published in medical journals. You may also want to contact a university or tertiary medical center in your area, because these centers tend to see more complex cases and have the latest technology and treatments.

If you can’t find a specialist in your local area, try contacting national or international specialists. They may be able to refer you to someone they know through conferences or research efforts. Some specialists may be willing to consult with you or your local doctors over the phone or by email if you can't travel to them for care.

You can find more tips in our guide, How to Find a Disease Specialist. We also encourage you to explore the rest of this page to find resources that can help you find specialists.

Healthcare Resources

These resources provide more information about this condition or associated symptoms. The in-depth resources contain medical and scientific language that may be hard to understand. You may want to review these resources with a medical professional.

In-Depth Information

  • The Monarch Initiative brings together data about this condition from humans and other species to help physicians and biomedical researchers. Monarch’s tools are designed to make it easier to compare the signs and symptoms (phenotypes) of different diseases and discover common features. This initiative is a collaboration between several academic institutions across the world and is funded by the National Institutes of Health. Visit the website to explore the biology of this condition.
  • Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) is a catalog of human genes and genetic disorders. Each entry has a summary of related medical articles. It is meant for health care professionals and researchers. OMIM is maintained by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. 
  • Orphanet is a European reference portal for information on rare diseases and orphan drugs. Access to this database is free of charge.
  • PubMed is a searchable database of medical literature and lists journal articles that discuss Epilepsy, benign occipital. Click on the link to view a sample search on this topic.

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