Risk factors associated with epilepsy in school children at the Regional Hospital of the North

Abstract

Background: The active prevalence of epilepsy in school age is 17.7% worldwide. It is estimated that between 80 and 85% of affected patients reside in low-income countries, where there is little availability of specialized care. Objective: Define the risk factors associated with epilepsy in schoolchildren attending the outpatient clinic of Pediatric Neurology, Hospital Regional of the North IHSS, in the period from January 2018 to June 2018. Patients and Method: Quantitative Cross-sectional Descriptive Study with non-experimental design nonprobabilistic sample. A survey of 26 questions was applied to 46 schoolchildren from 6 years to 11 years with 364 days who attended the outpatient clinic of Pediatric Neurology of the Hospital Regional of the North. Results: Male sex represented 63%, the age range of 6 to 9 years represented 72%. The maternal antecedent of threatened abortion was presented in 23.9%, the personal pathological antecedent of perinatal asphyxia in 26%. The relationship between the threat of abortion and perinatal asphyxia was 10.8%. 43% of the patients presented a positive history of family epilepsy; appropriate control of epileptic seizures was presented in 84.8%. The drug Levetiracetam was present in 52% of the cases; a electroencephalogram study was performed in 100% of the patients. Conclusions: the identification of these factors can contribute to a more timely diagnosis and comprehensive management of the school with epilepsy.