Kozhevnikov-Rasmussen Syndrome: A Historical Perspective Spanning Two Centuries

Abstract

The Kozhevnikov-Rasmussen syndrome consists of a distinctive constellation of intractable, mainly focal, motor seizures, associated with relentlessly progressive hemiparesis and neuropsychological deterioration with cognitive and linguistic deficits. It dates back to the end of the 19th century and spans two continents. The main seizure type, epilepsia partialis continua, was first described by the Russian neurologist Kozhevnikov in 1894 and shortly after the eponym Kozhevnikov epilepsy was used both in Russian and in Western literature. The description of “focal seizures due to chronic localized encephalitis in children” by Rasmussen and his colleagues took place in 1958 and it was introduced as Rasmussen encephalitis. What began as a clinical observation became a complex syndrome affecting many age groups with a possible neuroimmunological etiology. Here we describe the historical perspectives underlying the establishment of the syndrome.