Mortality in Children with Epilepsy
Although long-term studies of adults with epilepsy have revealed an increased mortality risk compared with the general population, mortality risks for children with epilepsy remain largely unknown. A recent study in the Netherlands compared 472 children with epilepsy with the general population. Data show that children with nonsymptomatic epilepsy have no greater risk of death, but children with symptomatic epilepsy (seizures with demonstrated antecedent conditions, such as stroke, head injury, cerebral palsy, malformations of the central nervous system) may have a 20-fold increase in risk of death.
The study followed 472 children (1 month to 16 years of age) who presented with 2 or more newly diagnosed, unprovoked seizures or with at least 1 episode of status epilepticus between August 1988 and August 1992 to any of 8 participating hospitals in the Netherlands for a period of 5 years. Hospitals included Leiden University Medical Centre, University Hospital (Rotterdam), Sophia Children's Hospital (Rotterdam), Westeinde Hospital and Juliana Children's Hospital (The Hague), University Hospital (Utrecht), Wilhelmina Hospital (Utretcht) and St. Elisabeth Hospital (Tilburg).
During the follow-up, 9 children died. This mortality rate (3.8/1000 person years) was 7-fold higher than expected. All had epilepsy caused by a static or progressive neurologic disorder. None of the 328 children with nonsymptomatic epilepsy died.
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