Intermittent falls and fecal incontinence as a manifestation of epileptic negative myoclonus in idiopathic partial epilepsy of childhood

We report two children, suffering from idiopathic partialepilepsy, who started to present, in the same period of time,with epileptic negative myoclonus (ENM) in one lower limb andfecal incontinence (FI). Polygraphic recordings showed thatENM was associated with paroxysmal activities distributed overthe vertex region. Both ENM and FI disappeared when ethosuximide treatment was started. We hypothesize that, in our patients, ENM in one lower limb and FI depended on a transitoryimpairment, caused by epileptic activity that altered the functionality of nearby cortical areas, located in fronto-mesial regions, involved in the control of the muscular tone of the lowerlimbs and of the pelvic floor muscles.