Abstracts

RATIONALE: The frequency of SUDEP (sudden unexpected death in epilepsy) in a medically refractory population has been variably reported to be between 1/40 to 1/200. This study identifies incidence of SUDEP as well as other causes of mortality in an intractable epilepsy population identified within a 10 year period. METHODS: Adult patient records from Minnesota Epilepsy Group, PA, for the period of 1990-2000, were reviewed to identify all patients with medically refractory epilepsy (those who had failed 2 or more antiepileptic medications and continued to have seizures) who had died while under clinical care. RESULTS: Of 3527 patients who were medically refractory, a total of 80 deaths occurred, 63 with an identifiable cause. Of these 63, 23 patients were classified as SUDEP. Seven of those deaths were clearly associated with a seizure; however, the remaining SUDEP patient deaths could not be associated with a seizure based upon the circumstances of the demise. Additional causes of death included 1 suicide, 1 aplastic anemia, 1 Rasmussen's encephalitis, and 1 homicide. CONCLUSIONS: In our intractable epilepsy population, SUDEP occurred with a frequency of 0.65%. This figure is somewhat lower than the published frequency for a medically refractory epilepsy population.