Posttraumatic epilepsy in childhood – case presentation

Abstract

Post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) is used to describe cases of late unprovoked epileptic seizures occurring after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Risk factors for late seizures include late age of the trauma (after age 65), the presence of early seizures, subdural hematoma, cerebral contusion, penetrating brain injury, depressive skull fractures and focal neurological deficits. The paper presents 7 clinical cases of children with severe traumatic brain injury with post-traumatic epilepsy. The main seizures are focal and secondary generalized tonic-clonic seizures, but two children experienced epileptic spasms.
Concomitant neurological deficit is presented in 6 of the children, 4 of whom are mentally retarded. The severity of the traumatic episode is directly related to the risk of subsequent epilepsy and also affects the length of the period of an increased risk for late epileptic seizures.
Seizures occurring even 10-15 years after severe TBI may be related to the trauma, and in cases of penetrating trauma, multiple contusions and hematomas, the risk is higher for a longer period of time (even up to 20 years after TBI).