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[Epilepsy and accidents: what is the risk in children?]
A L Ziegler1, O Reinberg, T Deonna
1Service de pédiatrie (unité de neuropédiatrie), centre hospitalier universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Suisse.
Background:
Constant distress and overprotection of parents result from the apprehension and misinformation received, regarding epilepsy of their children and the risk of accidents occurring due to a seizure. Large retrospective studies show that the epileptic children are not more often concerned than the general population.
Case Reports:
One hundred and ninety-eight epileptic children without permanent motor or mental handicap were followed between 1971 and 1981, covering 1056 years of child's life. They were compared to 3822 injured children admitted to the surgical pediatric emergency unit between 1983 and 1992.
Results:
Only six accidents occurred because of a seizure in the first group of epileptic children. There were neither deaths nor sequelae. Four of these six accidents revealed an unknown epilepsy. Among the 3,822 injured children, 19 were epileptic but only four of these 19 accidents were caused by a seizure. There were no sequelae.
Conclusion:
The majority of epileptic children without associated handicap are able to have all the normal activities of healthy children. Only severe epilepsies with frequent refractory seizures, some reflex epilepsies and some cases before the seizures are under control require constant supervision.