General surgery among long-term residents with and without active epilepsy at the Kork Epilepsy Centre - a prospective comparative one-year survey.
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.
Steinhoff
Bernhard J
BJ
Epilepsiezentrum Kork, Kehl-Kork, Germany. bsteinhoff@epilepsiezentrum.de
Hartmann
Ralph
R
Luy
Matthias
M
Rombach
Angelika
A
Ziegler
Gerhard
G
Schulte-Mönting
Jürgen
J
Gilliam
Frank G
FG
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