PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kentab, Amal Y.
AU  - Al Bulayhi, Shumukh
AU  - Hamad, Muddathir H.
AU  - Al Wadei, Ali
AU  - Bashiri, Fahad A.
TI  - Pattern and etiology of early childhood epilepsy: An Experience at a tertiary care University Center
AID  - 10.17712/nsj.2022.4.20220001
DP  - 2022 Oct 01
TA  - Neurosciences Journal
PG  - 244--250
VI  - 27
IP  - 4
4099  - http://nsj.org.sa/content/27/4/244.short
4100  - http://nsj.org.sa/content/27/4/244.full
SO  - Neurosciences (Riyadh)2022 Oct 01; 27
AB  - Objectives: To investigate seizure characteristics, types, and define the etiology of epilepsy in children aged ≤2 years using the 2017 ILAE classification.Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted at King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for children below 2 years of age diagnosed with epilepsy, and on anti-seizure medications from January 2017 – December 2018. The collected data involved detailed information on the patients’ seizure, electroclinical, neuroimaging, laboratory evaluations, and underlying etiology.Results: One- hundred and fifty patients were included in the study and classified according to etiology into: genetic (43, 28.7%), structural (41, 27.3%), metabolic (10, 6.7%), infectious (8, 5.3%), immune-mediated (1, 0.7%) and unknown (47, 31.3%) groups. The most common seizure types were generalized epilepsy, among which generalized tonic-clonic seizures occurred in 56 (37%) patients, followed by tonic seizures in 31 (21%), infantile spasm in 19 (13%), myoclonic seizures in 4 (2.7%), atonic seizures in 6 (4%), and focal seizures in 33 (22%) patients. Global developmental delay and abnormalities in both neurologic exam and neuroimaging were more common in the structural and genetic groups. Electroencephalography was abnormal in 82 (55%) patients, including the majority of the structural group (26, 63.4%).Conclusion: The etiology of epilepsy in this cohort remains undetermined (unknown) in a large proportion of cases, followed by genetic and structural causes. This result added to the published international data about epilepsy in the first 2-years of life.