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In 1958, Dr Theodore Rasmussen, then the director of the Montreal (Quebec) Neurological Institute, defined the childhood epileptic syndrome to which his name is now attached. It appeared to be a subgroup of Kozhevnikov's syndrome of epilepsia partialis continua confined to childhood, running a severe progressive course with seizures characterized by partial motor seizures and localized myoclonic seizures that become more widespread and progress to motor deficit and mental deterioration. It was noted that progressive cerebral atrophy occurred over time and that the histopathologic presention included a relatively nonspecific inflammatory reaction. The inexorable progression and resistance to medical therapy set this condition apart from other childhood epileptic syndromes with localization-related seizures.
Chronic Encephalitis and Epilepsy is based on a symposium held at the Montreal Neurological Institute in June 1988 and brings together the expertise of neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuropathologists, neuropsychologists, and neuroimmunologists as well as virologists and geneticists. Because of the