Clinical profile of children with epilepsy: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: One of the most common chronic neurological disorders is epilepsy, affecting as many as 45 million individuals worldwide. The occurrence is higher in children below the age of three. Around 60 percent to 70 percent of epilepsy patients have an effective response to treatment with antiepileptic medications. This cross-sectional study aimed to explore the clinical profile of children with epilepsy.Methods: Total of 100 children with different types of epilepsy was included in this study. After getting informed consent from the parents, all the demographic data, family history, clinical and laboratory investigations were recorded, and the results were statistically analyzed and discussed.Results: 69 patients had tonic-clonic seizures, 15 patients had a complete partial seizure, 7 patients had absence seizures, 4 patients had unclassified seizures, 3 patients had simple partial seizures, 1 patient had myoclonic seizures, atonic seizures and multiple seizures. Aetiology, 72 patients had an idiopathic cause, 10 patients had hypoxic ischemia, 8 patients had Central nervous system (CNS) infection, 4 patients had cerebral palsy and space-occupying lesion, 2 patients had trauma. Comorbidity, 84 patients had none, 4 patients had mental retardation, 3 patients had eye diseases, cerebral palsy, protein-energy malnutrition, mental retardation with cerebral palsy, 1 patient had a hearing impairment. Drug therapy, 63 patients had sodium valproate, 11 patients had carbamazepine, 2 patients had multidrug treatment, and 1 patient had sodium phenytoin.Conclusion: A significant amount of the aetiology of the condition is expressed among preventable causes of epilepsy. For generalized tonic clonic seizure, sodium valproate was observed to have more positive effects in paediatric patients.