A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF EPILEPTIC PATIENTS IN HERAT CITY OF AFGHANISTAN

Abstract

Epilepsy is one of the most common and serious neurological disorders which is characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures. Its prevalence ranges from 0.5% to 1% of the population in developed countries, and even higher in developing countries. Around 70 million people worldwide have epilepsy. This research aims to perform a descriptive study on epileptic children 7-18 years old in Herat city of Afghanistan.This descriptive study was performed on 7-18 years old children with epilepsy, which was conducted from in 2021 in Herat city of Afghanistan. The study included 100 patients with epileptic disorders, in this study Encephalography, Magnetic resonance imaging, Computed tomography, and Sociodemographic information were used to describe the patients. The main group of this study included 100 epileptic children. The age of study participants ranged from 7-18 years and the mean age was 9.21 ± 2.64 years. 46 (51.1%) were males and 44 (48.9%) were females. More often Epilepsy cases were observed in patients with focal seizures. Hereditary predisposition was found as a risk factor and it was statistically significant, the p-value was less than 0.0007. Having status epilepsy was also found a risk factor for epilepsy and the p-value was 0.001. Also, prognostic factors for refractory epilepsy were determined in this study. The risk factors that were found in epileptic patients, were high and comparable with other studies in the world literature. More often epilepsy cases were determined in patients with focal seizures, hereditary predisposition, and having status epilepsy also found as prevalent risk factors for refractory epilepsy. Also, prognostic factors for epilepsy were identified. Negative factors were a high number of seizures, abnormal electroencephalography findings, and early onset of seizures in epileptic patients.