Intractable partial epilepsy following low‐dose scalp irradiation in infancy

Abstract

We report the development of intractable epilepsy in 3 patients treated with irradiation to „strawberry” scalp nevi in infancy. Low‐dose radiation was used (12 and 13 Gy in 2 of the patients). The clinical evolution suggested a recognizable and distinctive postradiation syndrome. There was concordance between the site of radiation as shown by localized alopecia, the clinical features of the partial seizures, and electrographic abnormalities. The clinical picture was unlike delayed cerebral radiation necrosis of adulthood, which is not thought to occur at doses below 50 Gy, in 2‐Gy fractions. Neurological deficits were not progressive and in 2 patients there was no evidence of parenchymal inj..