[Mortality patterns of children with epilepsies in a children's medical center].
Two hundred and thirty-seven children have died who were seen in the Division of Neurology, Kanagawa Children's Medical Center from 1975 to 1989. They corresponded to about 11% of the total death in the hospital. A total of 128 cases of 237 deaths (54.0%) were suffering from epilepsies, most of whom were also complicated with other CNS disorders. The causes of death were pneumonia, respiratory failure and suffocation in 60%, whereas status epilepticus or convulsions only in 14%. About 40% of victims died at home or in an emergency room without effective resuscitation. Mortality was considered high in infantile spasms (16 out of 146, 11%) and in severe myoclonic epilepsy in infancy (4 out of 8, 50%). It was note worthy that 3 cases of severe myoclonic epilepsy in infancy died of status epilepticus and 2 died at home. Sixteen cases whose chief problems were partial epilepsies and severe myoclonic epilepsy in infancy, died of status epilepticus in 10 cases, convulsions after tonsillectomy, etc. Causes of death of these 16 cases were related to convulsions except in two cases whose causes were pneumonia in one and unknown in the other. About a half of them (7 cases) died at home. Adequate managements appeared necessary to prevent accidental deaths of children with epilepsies.
Miyake
S
S
Division of Neurology, Kanagawa Children's Medical Center, Yokohama.
Tanaka
M
M
Matsui
K
K
Miyagawa
T
T
Yamashita
S
S
Yamada
M
M
Iwamoto
H
H
D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D013226:Status Epilepticus / Q000401:mortality