An epidemiologic study of 389 children with epilepsy in southern Iran

Abstract Objective Approximately 4% of the worldʹs population experience one or more febrile seizures during their lifetime, and 0.5-1% of the population has active epilepsy.Less than one-third of the reported seizures are categorized as epilepsy. The cause of established epilepsy is important in determining the treatment and prognosis. Materials & Methods We studied 389 cases of documented epilepsy in children aged 2 months to 18 years who visited the hospital for neurologic examination during 2005-2010.Chi-square test or Fisherʹs exact test was performed for categorical variables. Results The most common age for the first seizure was below 2 years, and the most common type of epilepsy was generalized tonic-clonic seizure. Electroencephalography (EEG) showed an epileptic pattern in 60%, 29.8%, and 51% of the patients with idiopathic, symptomatic, and cryptogenic epilepsy, respectively. This pattern was significantly different among these 3 categories of epilepsy. Conclusion The most common type of seizure was cryptogenic; however, in most industrialized countries, idiopathic epilepsies were more frequent. With respect to the age and sex of patients, the prevalence of epilepsy in southern Iran is not so much different from that of patients in other parts of the world. As to generalized or partial epilepsy, there are different reports from different part ofthe world; however, generalized tonic-clonic seizures were more common in our area.