Epileptic disorders : international epilepsy journal with videotape
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This is a systematic-prospective study of occipital seizures with elementary visual hallucinations in 18 patients with symptomatic occipital epilepsy. Qualitative and chronological analysis showed that visual seizures usually lasted for seconds to 1-3 minutes. Three patients also had longer visual seizures of 20-150 minutes. ⋯ Progress to temporal lobe structures is different and consistent with symptomatic occipital lobe epilepsy. The clinical diagnosis of visual seizures is easy if individual elements of duration, colour, shape, size, location, movement, speed of development and progress are identified. They are markedly different from visual aura of migraine, although they often trigger migrainous headache, probably by activating trigeminovascular or brain stem mechanisms.