title: Epilepsy in hydrocephalic children.
abstract: Epilepsy and epileptogenic activity in EEGs were studied in 168 shunt treated hydrocephalic (HC) children, the mean age at first operation 1.62 years (SD 1.87). 80 patients (47.6%) suffered from epileptic seizures during the follow-up period (mean 8.9 years). The epileptic seizures appeared before the initial shunting, and after the first shunt implantation in 43 (25.6%). There was no correlation between epilepsy and the aetiology of HC, number of shunt revisions, or shunt infections. Sixteen patients suffered from seizures during the neonatal period. Generalized spike and wave activity (SWA) was seen in EEG in eight out of these, and only one was seizure-free at the end of the follow-up period. All eight patients with epileptic seizures during the neonatal period without generalized SWA in EEG were seizure-free, however. SWA was seen in the first EEG prior to shunting in 75/168 patients (44.6%). All those patients who did not receive prophylactic medication, developed epileptic seizures, whereas 68.1% of those who received prophylactic anticonvulsive medication remained free of seizures. Partial epilepsy after shunting manifested itself in 15 patients, but this did not correlate with the side of the shunt or with the side of the SWA in the EEG. Slit ventricles (SLV) developed in 75 patients during the follow-up period, while the ventricles remained normal or dilated in 66 cases (27 patients had no CT follow-up). Epilepsy manifested itself in 8 out of these 141 patients (2 SLV, 6 non-SLV) during the first postoperative year, and in 29 patients in the SLV group and one in the non-SLV group at some time after the first postoperative year.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Oulu, Nordic Council for Arctic Medical Research, Finland.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Saukkonen
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Serlo
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: von Wendt
mesh_terms: D002557:Cerebrospinal Fluid Shunts / Q000009:adverse effects; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D006849:Hydrocephalus / Q000150:complications* / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery; D007223:Infant