Epilepsy wth Myoclonic Absences and Epilepsy with Eyelid Myoclonia and Absences

The particular epileptic conditions outlined in this chapter are very different from each other. However, they share a similar age of onset and the presence of myoclonia. Both myoclonic absence (MA), and eyelid myoclonia with or without absence (ELMA or ELM), have a highly specifi c and recognizable video-EEG-polygraphic ictal pattern (if seen once, they will never be confused with other conditions). Moreover, like absence seizures, which can be seen in different epileptic conditions but represent the hallmark of a distinct syndromic entity, namely childhood absence epilepsy (see Chapters 19 and 21), both MA and ELM/ELMA can be observed in different epilepsies but are the distinguishing features of syndromic entities that are labeled by the characteristic seizure type or named Tassinari syndrome and Jeavons syndrome, respectively.