In memoriam: Professor Chrysostomos P. Panayiotopoulos

Professor Chrysostomos P. Panayiotopoulos (“Tomis”), one of the fathers of modern epileptology who discovered the Panayiotopoulos Syndrome, died peacefully at St Thomas Hospital in London, the hospital where he worked as a physician for nearly 20 years and chaired the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology.

Tomis once summarized his view of past epilepsy clinical diagnoses and management by saying, “In the early stages of my medical career… traditional medical teaching and attitudes to the diagnosis and management of epilepsies often differed from those applied in other medical conditions. The fundamental rules of diagnosis that apply in all other physical diseases were often ignored in epilepsies, resulting in avoidable morbidity and sometimes mortality.” Determined to put this right, he authored or co-authored over 140 scholarly articles on the subjects of epilepsy and neurophysiology and has also authored several seminal books, such as The Atlas of Epilepsies and A Clinical Guide to Epileptic Syndromes and Their Treatment.

 Read memorial tribute to Chrysostomos Panayiotopoulos - 1938 - 2020