Patients with greater brain damage more likely to have seizures afterwards, researchers find
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 7, 2016 (HealthDay News) — More than one in 10 stroke survivors develop epilepsy, and the greater the brain damage caused by stroke, the higher the risk of seizures, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society, held from Dec. 2 to 6 in Houston.
Beate Diehl, M.D., Ph.D., neurologist and clinical neurophysiologist at University College London, and colleagues analyzed data from 450 stroke survivors in the United Kingdom and found that 11 percent developed epilepsy after their stroke.
The researchers also found that patients who developed epilepsy had twice the amount of brain damage as those who did not develop seizures. Those who developed epilepsy were an average of 44 years old, compared with an average age of 56 for those who did not develop epilepsy.
“Many physicians treating stroke patients don’t realize that falls, episodes of confusion and loss of consciousness may be signs of post-stroke epilepsy,” Diehl said in a news release from the American Epilepsy Society.
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