Abstracts

RATIONALE: Neurocysticercosis (NC) is a common disease in developing countries. Epilepsy is the most frequent clinical finding. In children, epilepsy has not been fully characterized yet, despite its high frequency. The objective of this study is to characterize the epileptic picture of NC in childhood. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study and evaluated 59 patients : 27 with NC and epilepsy (case-group)and 32 with benign partial epilepsy of childhood (control-group). Each chart was reviewed based on a specific protocol. We evaluated age at first seizure, duration of epilepsy, type of seizure, interval for seizure control, number of seizures, number of AED, recurrence and withdrawal of AED. Tha data were submitted to statistical analysis. Mean follw-up was 5.5 and 4.5 years for case-group and control-group, respectively. RESULTS: Mean age at first seizure for case-group was 7.2 years and 9.6 years for control-group. Partial seizures predominated in both groups. Total duration of epilepsy was around 7 and 5 years, and interval for seizure control was 16.8 and 7.2 months, for case and control groups, respectively. Number of seizures and AED was considerably higher for patients with NC. Recurrence rate was 52.2% (12 out of 23 patients with follow-up) for case-group and 24.1% (7 out of 29 patients) for control group. Most data were statistically significant (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: We delineated a profile of childhood NC comparing patients with NC to patients with truly benign epilepsy of childhood. Our data showed that seizure onset was around 7 years, patients had epilepsy for 7 years and recurrence rate after AED withdrawal was high, despite easily controlled epilepsy.