Frequency of acute symptomatic seizures in adult hospitalized patients

Introduction: acute symptomatic seizures (ASS) are considered as one of the medical emergencies. The causes of ASS in developed countries may differ from the causes in developing countries. The aim of our study was to determine etiological risk factors of adult medical admissions due to ASS in our community. Investigating these factors could be useful in providing better prevention and control of seizures.Method: This study is a cross-sectional study (in a period of three years) by total sampling method, in non-traumatic patients admitted to the neurology ward with diagnosis of ASS. Demographic data, information about the patient's type of seizure, underlying diseases, drug history, systemic and neurological examination findings, routine laboratory data and EEG findings were gathered. Then data was analyzed with SPSS and statistical tests (P-value < ۰.۰۵)Results: From ۲۰۰ patients with mean age ۴۹.۶ (۲۹-۷۰) years old,۵۲% were male and ۴۸% were female. ۴۵% of patients had a history of underlying diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, renal disease, stroke, immunosuppressive diseases and intravenous drug abuse and the most common disease was hypertension (۲۰.۵%) followed by diabetes (۱۲%), stroke, renal disease, immunosuppressive diseases and drug abuse.Conclusion: According to our results, stroke and infectious diseases were the leading causes of ASSs in adults.

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