ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the clinical experience and research efforts of Dr. Samuel Livingston. His publications provide not only a broad database but also a consistent conceptualization of the field. Because there are a number of inconsistencies in the literature about seizure disorders and the variety of treatment techniques employed by physicians, Livingston's position is used as a standard against which other opinions are compared. Although electroencephalographic recordings are typically associated with the diagnosis of seizure disorders, in the majority of cases the most important diagnostic information is going to be caregiver descriptions of child behavior. Approximately 80% of the children with seizure disorders have tonic-clonic seizures either as their sole epileptic manifestation or in combination with some other seizure disorder. Absence seizures typically manifest as a sudden, brief loss of consciousness. Partial seizures are classified as being either partial seizures of elementary symptomatology or partial seizures of complex symptomatology.
