Long-term survival of people with unprovoked seizures: a population-based study.

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field PURPOSE: Few population-based studies of long-term survival in people with seizures or epilepsy have been made. METHODS: Between January 1, 1960 and December 31, 1964, we identified 224 inc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Epilepsia
Main Authors: Olafsson, E, Hauser, W A, Gudmundsson, G
Other Authors: Department of Neurology, National University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Blackwell Science 2009
Subjects:
Adult
Age Factors
Confidence Intervals
Epilepsy
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Iceland
Incidence
Life Tables
Male
Middle Aged
Seizures
Sex Factors
Survival Analysis
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2336/49474
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1528-1157.1998.tb01279.x
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Summary:To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field PURPOSE: Few population-based studies of long-term survival in people with seizures or epilepsy have been made. METHODS: Between January 1, 1960 and December 31, 1964, we identified 224 incidence cases of unprovoked seizures in Iceland and determined survivorship status and date of death for the cases as of January 1, 1996. We compared survivorship with that expected based on data from age-/sex-specific life tables from the country for 1961-1990 and calculated the standardized mortality ratio (SMR). RESULTS: By 30 years after diagnosis, there were 45 deaths among patients with unprovoked seizures as compared with an expected 28 deaths [standardized mortality ratio (SMR) 1.6; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2-2.2]. Patients with unprovoked seizures of unknown etiology did not have a significant increase in mortality overall (SMR 1.3, 95% CI 0.8-1.9) or in any time interval. For patients with remote symptomatic unprovoked seizures, mortality was increased (SMR 2.3, 95% CI 1.4-3.5). This increase was attributable to excess mortality for the first 15 years after diagnosis (SMR 4.1, 95% CI 2.4-6.6), and SMR was not different after that time. CONCLUSIONS: Survivorship was decreased for the population of patients with unprovoked seizures. The increased mortality was primarily due to excess mortality in patients with remote symptomatic seizures, occurring in the first 15 years after diagnosis. Overall mortality for idiopathic unprovoked seizures was not significantly increased.

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