The prevalence and classification of epileptic seizures in Nigerians with sickle-cell anaemia

A clinical and electroencephalographic study of the prevalence and pattern of epileptic seizures in 96 patients with sickle-cell anaemia (M:F 1:1, median age 12 years, range 2-45 years) attending our hospital is reported. Ten patients (M:F 1:1.5, median age 21 years, range 16-25 years) had epileptic seizures, giving a relatively high prevalence of 10.4%. Of these, one patient had primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures and four had secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures. Five patients had partial seizures without generalization. Only two patients were on any antiepileptic drug therapy. Our findings suggest that though epilepsy is common in SCA and the seizures seen are liable to poor control and increased risk for mortality, the patient is unlikely to present voluntarily for therapy. Physicians attending to young adults with SCA should specifically attempt to elicit a history of epileptic seizures in their patients.