Risk Factors for Epilepsy
1999; Elsevier BV; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/b978-012422150-5/50002-0
Autores Tópico(s)Infectious Encephalopathies and Encephalitis
ResumoThis chapter discusses the risk factors for epilepsy. The identification of risk factors allows the development of interventions that may ultimately prevent the development of epilepsy through eradication of the events in question. For many factors such as severe head injury, the relation to epilepsy seems obvious to the educated clinician and the lay person alike. Two strategies may be used to quantitate the degree of risk for epilepsy associated with a specific risk factor. The first evaluates past events in people with established epilepsy and compares this risk with that in some appropriate nonepileptic population. Several conditions occur following birth that result as static encephalopathy in survivors and are associated with an increased risk for epilepsy. Survivors of an infection of the CNS have a threefold increase in risk for epilepsy. Based on data from cohort studies of survivors of a cerebrovascular insult, individuals with occlusive stroke have a 20-fold increase in risk to develop epilepsy. The age-specific incidence of head injury with brain involvement has a trimodal pattern, with a peak in young children, a second peak in the teenager and young adult, and a third peak in the elderly. The risk of encephalopathy and the subsequent development of epilepsy, following immunization are also elaborated in the chapter.
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