Lennox-Gastaut syndrome

Lennox-Gastaut syndrome is a severe form of childhood-onset epilepsy marked by multiple different seizure types, cognitive impairment, and a distinctive slow spike-and-wave pattern on the electroencephalogram. It typically begins between the ages of three and five and usually persists into adulthood, making it one of the more difficult epilepsy syndromes to control with medication. The condition takes its name from the American neurologist William G. Lennox and the French neurologist Henri Gastaut, who independently characterized it. Its underlying causes vary widely: some cases follow brain injury before or around birth, encephalitis, meningitis, tumors, or structural brain malformations, others arise from genetic mutations including tuberous sclerosis and changes in genes such as CHD2, GABRB3, ALG13, and SCN2A, and in roughly a third of cases no clear cause is ever found. Children with the syndrome commonly experience tonic seizures during sleep, atonic drop attacks, and atypical absence seizures, alongside progressive learning and behavioral difficulties. It makes up about four percent of childhood epilepsy cases and affects boys somewhat more often than girls.