Mortality predictors of epilepsy and epileptic seizures among hospitalized elderly.

UNLABELLED: Epilepsy and epileptic seizures are common brain disorders in the elderly and are associated with increased mortality that may be ascribed to the underlying disease or epilepsy-related causes. OBJECTIVE: To describe mortality predictors of epilepsy and epileptic seizures in elderly inpatients. METHOD: Retrospective analysis was performed on hospitalized elderly who had epilepsy or epileptic seizures, from January 2009 to December 2010. One hundred and twenty patients were enrolled. RESULTS: The most common etiology was ischemic stroke (37%), followed by neoplasias (13%), hemorrhagic stroke (12%), dementias (11.4%) and metabolic disturbances (5.5%). In a univariate analysis, disease duration (p = 0.04), status epilepticus (p < 0.001) and metabolic etiology (p = 0.005) were associated with mortality. However after adjustment by logistic regression, only status epilepticus remained an independent predictor of death (odds ratio = 13; 95%CI = 2.3 to 72; p = 0.004). CONCLUSION: In this study status epilepticus was an independent risk factor for death during hospitalization.