Seizures in Patients with Brain Tumors

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To determine the presentation, incidence, and risk factors of seizures in patients treated for brain tumors. METHODS: One hundred patients who consecutively underwent a craniotomy for the treatment of supratentorial brain tumors were assessed. The pathologies of the patients enrolled in the study included glioma (n=56), meningioma (n=31), metastatic brain tumor (n=7), primary central nervous system lymphoma (n=4), and central neurocytoma (n=2). Anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) were administered to all patients for up to six months after the surgery. Pre-defined variables for outcome analysis included tumor grade and location, extent of tumor resection, number of seizures, age at tumor diagnosis, adjuvant therapy, medication and radiological abnormalities. RESULTS: Thirty patients (30%) presented at least a single episode of seizure at the time of admission. Five of these patients (16.7%) developed the seizure during the follow-up period. Newly developed seizure was noticed in six out of seventy patients (8.6%) without prior seizure. Histopathology was malignant gliomas in 10 and supratentorial meningioma in one. Early seizure developed only in two patients. CONCLUSION: Compared with patients without seizure, patients with seizure at the time of admission showed younger age (p=0.003), a higher portion of low-grade glioma (p=0.001), tumor location in the frontal and temporal lobes (p=0.003) and cortical involvement (p=0.017). Our study suggestes that tumor progression is considered a significant risk factor for seizure development in glioma patients.