The pooled incidence of post-stroke seizure in 102 008 patients

Post-stroke seizures and epilepsy may worsen the recovery and increase the disability of stroke patients during their daily lives. However, few meta-analysis studies have been conducted on post-stroke seizures incidence. We carried on a meta-analysis on the incidence rate of post-stroke seizures and associated factors.

We searched the Medline, Embase, Web of Science, Science Citation Index, and Cochrane Library electronic databases (1990-2013) to identify observational studies of post-stroke seizures. Two authors independently extracted the related information from all included studies. We calculated the pooled incidence by meta-analysis using the software R version 12.3.

A total of 34 longitudinal cohort studies involving 102 008 patients were included in our meta-analysis. The pooled incidence rate of post-stroke seizures was found to be 0.07 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.05-0.09] while the rate of post-stroke epilepsy (PSE) was 0.05 (95% CI, 0.04-0.06). The incidence of post-stroke seizures in hemorrhagic stroke (0.10, 0.08-0.13) was much higher than in ischemic stroke (0.06, 0.04-0.08) and when the cortical region was involved (0.15, 0.10-0.21).

Our meta-analysis showed that seizures occurred in about 6.93% of people with stroke. Seizures occurred more commonly after hemorrhagic stroke and when stroke occurred in the cortical region.