Normally Developed Infant With a Suppression Burst Pattern on Electroencephalography in the Neonatal Period

The background activity on neonatal electroencephalography (EEG) is a good prognostic indicator. An EEG suppression burst pattern usually indicates severe brain dysfunction and has been considered to be associated with a serious neurodevelopmental outcome. We report here a 2-year-old girl who developed generalized convulsions without any perinatal brain insult at 3 days of age. At that time, her EEG constantly showed a suppression burst pattern, and her prognosis was considered to be poor. However, her seizures were well controlled with the oral administration of carbamazepine, and the suppression burst pattern on EEG disappeared at 27 days of age. Unexpectedly, she developed normally for the following 2 years. Although children with normal development, despite the appearance of suppression burst, are extremely rare, and the reason why this patient showed a favorable outcome remains unknown, the clinical course of this patient proved that an EEG suppression burst pattern is not always associated with a poor prognosis.