Rare diseases · Sign or symptom
Focal impaired awareness seizure
HP:0002384
What it means
Focal impaired awareness seizure (or focal seizure with impaired or lost awareness) is a type of focal-onset seizure characterized by some degree (which may be partial) of impairment of the person's awareness of themselves or their surroundings at any point during the seizure.
Awareness during a seizure is defined as the person being fully aware of themselves and their environment throughout the seizure, even if immobile. If awareness is impaired at any point during the seizure, the seizure is a focal impaired awareness seizure. The degree of loss of awareness may vary. The terms 'complex partial seizure' and 'focal dyscognitive seizure' were previously used to denote a focal impaired awareness seizure.
Rare diseases that can present with this36
Common30–79%
12- Autosomal recessive cutis laxa type 2A
- Developmental and epileptic encephalopathy with spike-wave activation in sleep
- DOORS syndrome
- Dravet syndrome
- Epilepsy of infancy with migrating focal seizures
- Hyperekplexia-epilepsy syndrome
- Isolated focal cortical dysplasia
- New-onset refractory status epilepticus
- Primary hyperaldosteronism-seizures-neurological abnormalities syndrome
- Rasmussen syndrome
- Self-limited infantile epilepsy
- X-linked intellectual disability-cerebellar hypoplasia syndrome
Sometimes5–29%
21- Bilateral parasagittal parieto-occipital polymicrogyria
- CLCN4-related X-linked intellectual disability syndrome
- Combined malonic and methylmalonic acidemia
- DNM1L-related encephalopathy due to mitochondrial and peroxisomal fission defect
- Early-onset epileptic encephalopathy-cortical blindness-intellectual disability-facial dysmorphism syndrome
- Familial focal epilepsy with variable foci
- Global developmental delay-neuro-ophthalmological abnormalities-seizures-intellectual disability syndrome
- Guanidinoacetate methyltransferase deficiency
and 13 more in this range
The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.
Part of the broader category
Also called: Complex focal seizures · Complex partial seizure · Complex partial seizures · Dyscognitive seizures · Focal dyscognitive seizure · Focal impaired awareness seizures · Focal seizure with impairment of awareness · Focal seizure with loss of awareness
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Start free with EleplanThis page uses the Human Phenotype Ontology (2026-06-23) — Human Phenotype Ontology Consortium, hpo.jax.org. Disease associations from Orphanet (INSERM), CC BY 4.0. Content is educational and is not medical advice.