[Etiological factors of epilepsy]

The epilepsies are one of the main reasons for consultation and hospital admission in neurology. They may be caused by multiple factors.

To determine the types of epilepsy, their aetiology and the value of a clinical history in diagnosis of their cause.

We studied 96 epileptic patients aged over 15 years in the epilepsy clinic of the Hospital Dr. Carlos J. Finlay in La Habana, Cuba. On a questionnaire we recorded: family history, pre-, peri- and postnatal histories, clinical features of the crises and physical exploration. All had inter-ictal electroencephalograms, 62 had cranial CTs, 36 had MR studies and 8 had both types of imaging studies. We excluded acute metabolic disorders and cerebral tumours.

There was a predominance of persons aged between 26 and 35 (78%) and 59.37% were men. Symptomatic epilepsy was seen in 51.4%, in 38.54% this was cryptogenic and in 10.41% idiopathic. Perinatal damage was present in 20.8%, head injury in 11.4%, febrile convulsion in 10.4%, meningoencephalitis in 8.3% and cardiovascular disease in 4.1%.

The international classification of epilepsy permits our patients to be divided into groups. In most of them aetiological factors were detected after an interview and medical exploration.