1981 International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) classification of seizures

1. Partial (focal, local) seizures

1. Simple partial seizures (consciousness not impaired)
   1. With motor signs
      1. focal motor (without march)
      2. focal motor (without march) (jacksonian)
      3. versive
      4. postural
      5. phonatory (vocalization and arrest of speech)
   2. With somatosensory or special-sensory symptoms (simple hallucinations, e.g., tingling, light flashes, buzzing)
      1. somatosensory
      2. visual
      3. auditory
      4. olfactory
      5. gustatory
      6. vertiginous
   3. With autonomic symptoms or signs (including epigastric sensation, pallor, sweating, flushing, piloerection and pupillary dilatation)
   4. With psychic symptoms (disturbance of higher cerebral function). These symptoms rarely occur without impairment of consciousness and are much more commonly experienced as complex partial seizures
2. Complex partial seizures (with impairment of consciousness; may sometimes begin with simple symptomatology)
   1. Simple partial onset followed by impairment of consciousness
      1. With simple partial features followed by impaired consciousness
      2. With automatisms
   2. With impairment of consciousness at onset
      1. With impairment of consciousness only
      2. With automatisms
3. Partial seizures evolving to secondarily generalized seiures (This may be generalized tonic-clonic, tonic, or clonic)
   1. Simple partial seizures evolving to generalized seizures
   2. Complex partial seizures evolving to generalized seizures
   3. Simple partial seizures evolving to complex partial seizures evolving to generalized seizures

2. Generalized seizures (convulse or nonconvulsive)

1. absences
   1. impairment of consciousness only
   2. with mild clonic components
   3. with atonic components
   4. with tonic components
   5. with automatisms
   6. with autonomic components
   7. B through F may be used alone or in combination
2. Atypical absence
   1. Changes in tone that are more pronounced than in absences
   2. Onset and/or cessation that is not abrupt
3. Myoclonic seizures  Myoclonic jerks (single or multiple)
4. Clonic seizures
5. Tonic seizures
6. Tonic-clonic seizures
7. Atonic seizures (Astatic) (combinations of the above may occur, e.g., Myoclonic seizures and Atonic seizures, Myoclonic seizures and Tonic seizures)

3. Unclassified epileptic seizures (Includes all seizures that cannot be classified because of inadequate or incomplete data and some that defy classification in hitherto described categories. This includes some neonatal seizures, e.g., rhythmic eye movements, chewing, and swimming movements)

References:

1、Proposal for revised clinical and electroencephalographic classification of epileptic seizures. From the Commission on Classification and Terminology of the International League Against Epilepsy.Epilepsia, 1981. 22(4): p. 489-501.