Citation

Matsumoto JH, Caplan R, McArthur DL, Forgey MJ, Yudovin S, Giza CC. Epilepsy Behav. 2013; 27(1): 233-237.

Affiliation

Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, USA; UCLA Brain Injury Research Center, USA. Electronic address: jmatsumoto@mednet.ucla.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.yebeh.2013.01.024

PMID

23480860

Abstract

Though posttraumatic epilepsy (PTE) is a prominent sequela of traumatic brain injury (TBI), other nonepileptic phenomena also warrant consideration. Within two UCLA pediatric TBI cohorts, we categorized five spell types: 1) PTE; 2) Epilepsy with other potential etiologies (cortical dysplasia, primary generalized); 3) Psychopathology; 4) Behavior misinterpreted as seizures; and 5) Other neurologic events. The two cohort subsets differed slightly in injury severity, but they were otherwise similar. Overall, PTE occurred in 40%, other epilepsy etiologies in 14%, and nonepileptic spells collectively in 46%. Among children with spells, PTE was associated with severe TBI (p=0.001), whereas psychopathology (p=0.014) and epilepsy with other etiologies (p=0.006) were associated with milder TBI severity. Posttraumatic epilepsy (p=0.002) and misinterpreted behavior (p=0.049) occurred with younger injury age. Psychopathology (p=0.020) and other neurologic events (p=0.002) occurred with older injury age. In evaluating possible PTE, clinicians should maintain a broad differential diagnosis to prevent misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment.

Language: en