Prevalence and epidemiology of epilepsy among Egyptian infants and children

ABSTRACT

Pre-designed questionnaires fulfilling some remarks about epilepsy were distributed among children of 12 primary schools randomly chosen from Abbassia and Heliopolis districts in Cairo. All cases were recruited from the survey as well as those epileptics followed up in the pediatric neurology clinic. They were subjected to history taking and mical examination in addition to intelligence quotient and EEC. computerized tomography [CT] was done for some selected cases. The prevalence of epilepsy was found to be 3.5/1000 with highest prevalence in the group aged 6-9 years. Boys were found to be more affected than girls although statistically insignificant. Primary epilepsy-was more common than secondary cases. Partial seizures were more prevalent than generalized ones and they were found to be significantly associated with secondary etiology. Early onset of seizures, secondary etiology and partial nature of seizures were significantly associated with different neurological deficits. Primary cases especially generalized seizures showed better therapeutic response. CT scan were normal in all primary cases but were positive in all examined secondary cases. To sum up, we can conclude that epilepsy is not uncommon problem among Egyptian school children. There is no significant sex prediction. Response to treatment can be predicted on clinical basis, i.e. primary etiology, generalized nature as well as absence of neurological deficits were the most important predictors of good response to therapy