Etiological prevalence of epilepsy and epileptic seizures in hospitalized elderly in a Brazilian tertiary center – Salvador - Brazil

Prevalência etiológica de epilepsia e crises epilépticas em idosos hospitalizados em centro terciário – Salvador – Brasil

Epilepsy in the elderly has high incidence and prevalence and is often underecognized.

Objective  To describe etiological prevalence of epilepsy and epileptic seizures in elderly inpatients.

Methods  Retrospective analysis was performed on elderly patients who had epilepsy or epileptic seizures during hospitalization, from January 2009 to December 2010. One hundred and twenty patients were enrolled. They were divided into two age subgroups (median 75 years) with the purpose to compare etiologies.

Results  The most common etiology was ischemic stroke (36.7%), followed by neoplasias (13.3%), hemorrhagic stroke (11.7%), dementias (11.4%) and metabolic disturbances (5.5%). The analysis of etiological association showed that ischemic stroke was predominant in the younger subgroup (45% vs 30%), and dementias in the older one (18.9% vs 3.8%), but with no statistical significance (p = 0.23).

Conclusion  This study suggests that epilepsy and epileptic seizures in the elderly inpatients have etiological association with stroke, neoplasias and dementias.

elderly; epilepsy; epileptic seizures; etiology; prevalence