Epilepsy in children: an epidemiological study at Kathmandu Medical College Teaching Hospital Kathmandu.

OBJECTIVES

To analyze the relative frequencies of various epileptic seizures and to study the age at onset of different seizure types in Nepalese children.

DESIGN

Prospective study.

SETTING

Hospital outpatient based in Kathmandu, Nepal, between November 2001 to October 2002.

PARTICIPANTS

50 children diagnosed as epilepsy excluding neonatal and febrile seizures.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

Diagnosis and classification of cases according to the International Classification of Epilepsy of the International League Against Epilepsy [ILAE] and number of patients in each category with various ages at first seizure.

RESULT

Generalized seizures (78%) were 3.54 times commoner than partial seizures (22%). Most frequent seizure types were generalized tonic clonic (36%), tonic (16%), complex partial (14%), atonic (12%) and absence (10%). Generalized clonic, simple partial and partial with secondary generalization, each had less than 5% frequencies. In 40% cases the first seizure occurred when aged between 2-5 years. In partial seizures the peak age at onset was observed below 6 years while primary generalized seizure was more frequently seen in age group 2-10 years.

CONCLUSION

More paediatric patients with primary generalized seizures (78%) were observed than with partial seizures (22%). In this age group, the most frequent seizure type was generalized tonic clonic (36%) with the peak frequency of age at onset of seizures in 2-5 years.