title: General surgery among long-term residents with and without active epilepsy at the Kork Epilepsy Centre - a prospective comparative one-year survey.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We prospectively assessed the frequency, type, severity and cause of treatment among the long-term residents of the Kork Epilepsy Centre in the year 2005.
  
  
  METHODS
  All long-term residents were exclusively referred to the general surgeon practicing on the campus. Patients were divided into 2 groups comprising 285 patients with active epilepsy and 53 controls who either never had epileptic seizures or have remained seizure free for at least 4 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 1-year incidence of injuries was 54.2% among the active epilepsy group and 36.8% among controls (p = 0.0275). Several admissions due to differing reasons occurred in 16.8% of people with active epilepsy and in 7.5% of the controls (not significant). More than 2 admissions due to various reasons only occurred in patients with active epilepsy (range 3-9). Of all injuries, 41.3% were directly related to seizures. Among patients with active epilepsy, the 3 most frequent injuries were lacerations, bruises and fractures (29.6, 17.0 and 11.7%, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  According to this prospective study, active epilepsy turned out to be a significant risk factor for injuries under homogenous patient and observer conditions.
authors.affiliation: Epilepsiezentrum Kork, Kehl-Kork, Germany. bsteinhoff@epilepsiezentrum.de
authors.forename: Bernhard J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Steinhoff
authors.forename: Ralph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Luy
authors.forename: Angelika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rombach
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ziegler
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schulte-Mönting
authors.forename: Frank G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Gilliam
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013043:Specialties, Surgical / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult