Electroencephalographic findings in epileptic patients in Tanzania

Electroencephalogram (EEG) of 524 Tanzanian epileptic patients seen between 1985 and 1988 were reviewed after a description and classification of seizures. Over two thirds were young patients between the age of five and thirty. The majority (86%) had abnormal records. Of these, 89% of abnormal records had focal abnormality and 11% had centrencephalic abnormality. Grand mal seizures did not imply centrencephalic abnormality, only 13% had such abnormality. Absence seizures are rare and over one third of these had temporal focal abnormality. Partial seizures were associated highly with focal abnormality. However, complex partial seizures did not imply temporal focal abnormality. Implications of EEG findings to correlation with epileptic seizures is discussed.