All issues > Volume 33(6); 1990

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1990;33(6):780-789. Published online June 30, 1990.

Clinical Study of Epilepsy in Children.

Byeng Gu Min¹, Chan Young Kim²

¹Department of Pediatrics, Maryknoll Hospital, Pusan, Korea
²Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Pusan National University, Pusan, Korea

Received: January 8, 1990;  Accepted: January 15, 1990.

Abstract

The author analyzed the seizure types, clinical symptoms, and laboratory examinations in 156 epileptic children who were admitted to Maryknoll Hospital during the 6 years since June 1983 > The results were summarized as follows: 1) Of the 156 epileptic children, 48.1% exhibited generalized seizures, 37.2% partial seizures, 10. 2% unclassified seizures. The most common type was tonic-clonic seizure (37.8%). 2) Epilepsy was most frequent in children from birth to 6 years of age (62.2%). 3) The presumed causes of epilepsy, in order of frequency, were birth trauma, head trauma, neonatal hypoxia, meningitis and prematurity. The incidence of febrile seizure was 16.0% and the incidence of convulsion in family history was 7.7%, and incidence of both was 3.2%. 4) In the 156 children, the abnormal EEG findings were found in 78.2%. Of those patients, the most common abnormal EEG findings was dysrhythmia III pattern (42.9%). Abnormal EEG findings were found more commonly in partial seizure (86.2%) than in generalized seizure (70.7%). Of those patients, 39.0% showed abnormality in brain CT and the focal lesions were more common than the bilateral. 5) The abnormal findings in brain CT were 35.1% and the abnormal findings were found more commonly in partial seizure (54.9%) than in generalized seizure. The common abnormal findings were cerebral atrophy. The dysrhythmia pattern of EEG findings were more commonly found in patients with brain atrophy and hydrocephalus. 6) The effective control rate of epileptic patients with antieptic drugs was 89.5%.

Keywords :Epilepsy in children.