CTFtable3

Table 3: Translating between the Common (1981) list of seizures and the 2006 seizure list.

1981 – Common seizure list	2006 – Updated list
Partial or Focal onset
A. Simple partial* seizures (consciousness not impaired) 1. With motor signs 2. With somatosensory or special sensory symptoms 3. With autonomic signs of symptoms 4. With psychic symptoms (usually experienced as “complex partial seizures”	A. Local 1. Neocortical a. Without local spread 1) Focal clonic seizures 2) Focal myoclonic seizures 3) Inhibitory motor seizures 4) Focal sensory seizures with elementary symptoms 5) Aphasic seizures b. With local spread 1) Jacksonian march seizures 2) Focal sensory seizures with experiential symptoms 2. Hippocampal and parahippocampal B. With ipsilateral propagation to: 1. Neocortical areas (includes hemicortical seizures) 2. Limbic areas (includes gelastic seizures) C. With contralateral spread to: 1. Neocortical areas (hyperkinetic seizures) 2. Limbic areas (dyscognitive seizures with or without automatisms {psychomotor])
B. Complex partial seizures 1. Simple partial onset followed by impairment of consciousness a. beginning with simple partial features b. beginning with automatisms 2. With impairment of consciousness at onset
C. Partial seizures evolving to secondarily generalized seizures	D. Secondarily Generalized 1. Tonic-clonic seizures 2. ? Absence 3. ? Epileptic spasms
1. Simple partial (A) evolving to generalized
2. Complex partial (B) evolving to generalized
3. Simple partial evolving to complex partial evolving to generalized

Generalized Onset
A. 1. Absence a. impaired consciousness only b. with mild clonic components c. with atonic components d. with tonic components e. with automatisms f. with autonomic components (b – f are not mutually exclusive and may occur in various combinations)	B. Absence 1. Typical 3. Myoclonic absence
2. Atypical absence a. Changes in tone more pronounced than A1 b. Onset/offset not abrupt	B. 2. Atypical absence
B. Myoclonic Seizures	C. 1. Myoclonic seizures 2. Myoclonic astatic seizures 3. Eyelid myoclonia
C. Clonic Seizures	A. Seizures with tonic and/or clonic manifestations 1. Tonic-clonic 2. Clonic 3. Tonic
D. Tonic Seizures
E. Tonic Clonic Seizures
(Not explicitly acknowledged)	D. Epileptic spasms
F. Atonic seizures	E. Atonic seizures

Unclassified Epileptic seizures
Neonatal seizures	Neonatal seizures
Rhythmic eye movements
Chewing
Swimming movements

*The term focal is now preferred as partial implies “incomplete.”

The history of the term “complex partial seizure” requires some comment. Per Engel (2001) “Confusion, and at times vociferous objections, resulted in part from the fact that the 1970 International Classification of Epileptic Seizures had used the term ‘complex partial seizures’ synonymously with ‘temporal lobe seizures.’ Over the past two decades, detailed investigations of the anatomic substrates of ictal semiology, based largely on work carried out at epilepsy surgery centers have strongly suggested that the fundamental mechanisms of certain limbic seizures are different from those of neocortical seizures, and that both can be associated with impairment of consciousness or not. Consequently, the designation of partial seizures as ‘simple’ or ‘complex’ has in the process lost meaningful precision. Indeed, the 1981 Classification of the Epileptic seizures was purposely based purely on ictal phenomenology and associated EEG findings rather than anatomic substrates and pathophysiologic mechanisms because insufficient information was available at the time to permit the authors to do otherwise. It is the belief of the Task Force that adequate evidence now exists to permit creation of a list of seizure types that now represent diagnostic entities as opposed to phenomenologic descriptions, based on known or presumed common anatomy and pathophsiology. Such diagnostic entities would, like syndrome, have etiologic, prognostic, and therapeutic implications….” [provide link to full document here]