Profile of post-traumatic epilepsy in Benin City, Nigeria

Post traumatic epilepsy is recurrent chronic seizures occurring after four weeks following brain injury. It commonly occurs after road traffic accidents thus making it a preventable cause of chronic seizures. The prevalence and pattern of this disorder is not known among Nigerian patients with epilepsy.

This study aimed at determining the prevalence of and predisposing type of head injury to developing post traumatic epilepsy.

We studied 244 consecutive patients with epilepsy attending the neurology clinic of a tertiary health facility in an urban Nigerian city by analyzing the details of their demographic and clinical data obtained with the aid of a structured questionnaire and from the Epilepsy Registry of a Neurology Unit between January and December 2006.

Thirty-eight patients with a mean age of 38.6 +/- 7.3 years (age range 15- 75 years) had posttraumatic epilepsy comprising 15.57% of all cases of epilepsy. Thirty-three (86.8%) had closed head injury. Thirty-two (84.2%) of the patients had positive history of loss of consciousness. Twenty two patients (57.9%) sustained head injury from motor vehicle accidents. Majority of the patients had secondarily generalized seizures (73.7% of the cases). Twenty-seven (71.4%) of the 38 patients had seizure onset in the first year after brain injury. Depressed skull fracture (19/38; 50%) was the most common abnormal CT finding.

Post traumatic epilepsy contributes significantly to the number of patients with epilepsy presenting to our neurology services. There is need to educate people on the usefulness of seat-belts and helmets while driving.