J Korean Child Neurol Soc.  2010 May;18(1):33-39.

Risk Factors of Epilepsy after Central Nervous System Infection in Children

• Baek MY
• Kim YM
• Lee YJ
• Nam SO

Abstract

PURPOSE
We performed this study in order to investigate the incidence and risk factors in acute phase of epilepsy after previous central nervous system (CNS) infection.
METHODS
We retrospectively studied 74 children with epilepsy after CNS infection from January 2000 to June 2007. We compared the significant difference of the demographic findings, underlying disease, clinical features, and findings of EEG and brain MRI between the epilepsy group and the control group after CNS infection.
RESULTS
Overall incidence of patients with epilepsy after CNS infection was 12.2%. The incidence of epilepsy in the children with seizure during acute stage of the illness, vomiting, decreased mentality, fever and headache was 26.5%, 24.0%, 16.6%, 10.2%, 9.1%, respectively. The incidence of epilepsy in children who had abnormal findings of EEG and brain MRI was 28.5% and 20.0%. The children who had seizure during acute stage(P=0.0005), vomiting(P=0.0261) and abnormal EEG finding(P=0.0065) had significantly higher incidence of epilepsy after CNS infection.
CONCLUSION
The incidence of children with epilepsy after CNS infection was 12.2%. Special attention and follow-ups are needed to detect vomiting, seizure and abnormal EEG findings in acute phase of CNS infection.

Keyword

Central nervous system infections; Epilepsy; Risk factors; Incidence

MeSH Terms

Brain
Central Nervous System
Central Nervous System Infections
Child
Electroencephalography
Epilepsy
Fever
Follow-Up Studies
Headache
Humans
Incidence
Retrospective Studies
Risk Factors
Seizures
Vomiting