Abstracts

Patients presenting a first seizure are commonly hospitalized in order to achieve a better diagnosis. Moreover, even patients affected by chronic active epilepsy may be occasionally admitted for therapy changes, intractable seizures, and so on. The main purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics of patients with a discharge diagnosis of seizure and epilepsy. To also establish the period prevalence of seizure and epilepsy according to age groups. We conducted a descriptive and retrospective study based on the discharge code registry of patients with a diagnosis of isolated and recurrent seizures who were attended in all Hospitals of the area between January 1998 and December 2002. Moreover, we reviewed in detail all medical discharge reports of patients with seizures admitted in our Clinic between 1998 and 2002. Patient[rsquo]s demographic data were screened and patients residing outside the Trento Province were excluded. The population census of 2002 was used to calculate the period prevalence of epilepsy. A total of 15 Trento Province Hospitals were involved in the study. Between 1998 and 2002, 2412 (1302 females and 1110 males) patients were hospitalized and discharged with a diagnosis of seizure and epilepsy. Age of patients ranged from 2 months to 98 years old (mean: female, 59 yrs; men, 56 yrs). In more than one half (58.8%) patient age was [gt] 50 year old. Age at seizure onset varied from 2 months to 95 years old. Epilepsy was partial in 71.5% and generalized in 25.5% cases. In 3 % of patients a well-defined epilepsy diagnosis was not possible. A poor correlation between actual epileptic events and related medical discharge report codes was found in our hospitalized patients. The period prevalence rate of epilepsy in 2002 (January to December) is 1.3 in 1000. The prevalence rate of epilepsy in this Italian population was lower than what reported in other developed countries. It is likely that our study could represent an underestimation of the true epilepsy prevalence in Trento. One of the reasons of this underestimation may be due to the methodological approach (single method). However, other reasons need to be considered, such as a poor attention on discharge coding procedures for epidemiological purpose.