Open AccessClinical course of poststroke epilepsy: a retrospective nested case–control study
Author(s) -
Zelano Johan,
Lundberg Rebecca Gertz,
Baars Leopold,
Hedegärd Emelie,
Kumlien Eva
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
brain and behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 41
ISSN - 2162-3279
DOI - 10.1002/brb3.366
Subject(s) - epilepsy , medicine , stroke (engine) , psychosocial , population , tolerability , epidemiology , status epilepticus , pediatrics , physical therapy , psychiatry , adverse effect , mechanical engineering , environmental health , engineering
Recently, several epidemiological studies have demonstrated that epilepsy develops after approximately 10% of all cerebrovascular lesions. With an aging population, poststroke epilepsy is likely to be of increasing relevance to neurologists and more knowledge on the condition is needed. Patients with poststroke epilepsy are likely to differ from other epilepsy patient populations regarding age, side‐effect tolerability, comorbidities, and life expectancy, all of which are important aspects when counselling newly diagnosed patients to make informed treatment decisions. Method We have here performed a nested case–control study on 36 patients with poststroke epilepsy and 55 controls that suffered stroke but did not develop epilepsy. The average follow‐up time was between 3 and 4 years. Results In our material, two‐thirds of patients achieved seizure freedom and 25% experienced a prolonged seizure (status epilepticus) during the follow‐up period. Cases consumed more health care following their stroke, but did not suffer more traumatic injuries. Interestingly, the mortality among cases and controls did not differ significantly. This observation needs to be confirmed in larger prospective studies, but indicate that poststroke epilepsy might not infer additional mortality in this patient group with considerable comorbidities. Conclusions The observations presented can be of value in the counselling of patients, reducing the psychosocial impact of the diagnosis, and planning of future research on poststroke epilepsy.