Outcome of treatment of children with epilepsy in a Nigerian tertiary hospital

Abstract

Background: Epilepsy, the most predominant noncontagious neurologic disorder affecting children and carrying profound levels of social stigma, is an important cause of childhood morbidity globally. Objectives: This study aims at describing the prevalence, etiological risk factors, seizure pattern/associated comorbidities, and outcome of treatment with antiepiletic drugs (AEDs) among patients with epilepsy attending the neurology clinic of Federal Medical Center, Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A 10-year review of all patients seen at the neurology clinic of the tertiary institution. Information including history/physical examination, socio-demographic variables, and electroencephalogram (EEG) findings was collected from the clinic records of the patients between January 2009 and December 2019. A total of 105 patients presented with clinical features of epilepsy classified based on the 2017 International League Against Epilepsy classification. All data obtained from the clinic records were analyzed using the SPSS, Version 23.0, software. Results: Of the 302 patients seen with different neurologic morbidities, 105 had epilepsy, giving a prevalence rate of 34.7%, occurring more in children aged 6 months to 3 years with a male predisposition (55.2%). Generalized tonic-clonic (GTC) seizure was identified as the most predominant type 9/105(8.6%), severe birth asphyxia and cerebral palsy were the most common cause, and comorbidity of epilepsy, respectively. Sodium valproate was the commonly used AED with 55.8% good outcome. Conclusion: Epilepsy is still an underreported childhood neurologic morbidity in our environment. Good outcome recorded can be attributed to high levels of adherence to medication and absence of associated metabolic disorders or intracranial structural lesions.