Abstracts

Rationale: Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, exerting a significant negative impact on the patient’s daily living activities, social life, and productivity.  Population-based surveys of epilepsy have been repeatedly undertaken in many countries, revealing a variable prevalence of epilepsy ranging from 1.5 to 27.6/1,000. The general profile of epilepsy in Saudi Arabia remains largely unknown, the only study by Alrajeh et al. (2001) indicated a prevalence rate of 6.54/1,000 in a restricted area inhabited by 23,700 Saudi nationals in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia.To determine the prevalence of epilepsy and other seizure disorders in a well- defined Saudi population.   Methods: The study was conducted in three phases.  A door-to-door, population-based survey in the eastern region of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which has an estimated population of 55,000, with diverse ethnic groups residing within the region.  Any seizure-like events were classified according to the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE).  Patients with possible epilepsy underwent a thorough evaluation by a neurologist and/or epileptologist.  Those with active epilepsy who had not undergone recent imaging were invited to undergo EEG and MRI evaluation.  All clinical and neuroimaging findings were reviewed and classified per ILAE criterion for symptomatic epilepsy. Results: A total of 55 cases of epilepsy were identified from among the 13,873 individuals surveyed, resulting in a prevalence of 3.96 per 1000 (34 for partial epilepsies; 16 for generalized epilepsies; 9 for undetermined epilepsies).   Conclusions: The prevalence of epilepsies in our study was lower than that provided by previous population-based studies. Funding: none