Abstract

Adnan al-Duwaish * and Khalid al-Jubeir

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders worldwide. More than 80% of people with epilepsy (PWE) live in tropical and subtropical areas with low income countries. Comparing to high income countries, the prevalence of epilepsy in low income countries amounted into ten times higher and the incidence rate was twice that of high income countries. The aim of the present study is to investigate and examine the characteristic, clinical manifestations and epileptic profile in Yemeni patients who were referred to the Neurological Center in Sana'a city. The clinical data of patients who were referred to the Neurological Center at Sana'a city with focal or generalized seizures were consecutively, systematically, and prospectively recorded in a database and reviewed by the investigators from January 2010 to December 2013. For all the patients, a pre-coded data form was completed to collect the demographic data relevant history, neurological examination, and EEG and CT findings. All the EEG records were read by the same electroencephalographic. A total of 500 patients with epilepsy were seen during the study period (266 males and 234 females). The age ranged from 1 year to 65 years. 99 patients were younger than 6 years, 184 (36.8%) aged between 6-15 years, while 129 (25.8%) are aged between 16-25 years. 115 patients with epilepsy have family history of epilepsy and 96 patients did not know about the epilepsy in his/her family. The most obvious association between epilepsy and risk factors were febrile convulsion which accounted for 13.6%, head trauma in 11.2% and CNS infections. The predominant seizure was classified as generalized in 355 patients (71%), as partial in 109 (21.8%) and unclassified in 36 (7.2%). This study threw light shadow on the importance of epilepsy in Yemen and further wide community studies are required to obtain comprehensive and accurate information on these disorders