Evaluation of the Frequency of Early Seizures in Patient with Acute Cerebrovascular Accident (CVA) Admitted to Neurology Department of Valiasr Hospital (2007)

Cerebrovascular accidents are one of the most common causes of disability in human population all over the world. Regarding the incidence of post- CVA Seizures and its effect on morbidity and mortality in these patients and due to lack of enough similar studies in our country, we decided to carry out this study in Valiasr hospital, Zanjan. This descriptive study was conducted on 404 CVA patients who were admitted in Valiasr hospital from Mar to Oct 2007. The data such as gender, age, type of CVA, damaged brain zone, occurrence of seizure in the first week, type of seizure and the expiration date (if patient had expired), was collected through questionnaire the data were analyzed using appropriate softwares. The total mean age was 70.3 years old. 227 (56/2%) were men and 177 (43/8%) were women. Out of 404 patients with CVA, 362 cases (89/6%) were admitted with ischemic and 42 cases (10/4%) with hemorrhagic CVA. 16 cases (4%) had at least one seizure attack at the first week after CVA. Fifteen patients (4.1%) with ischemic CVA and 1 case (2.4%) with hemorrhagic CVA had at least one episode of early seizure in the first week (P= 0.579). The mortality rate was 7.5 and 31.3% in patients without and with seizure attack respectively. This study showed that early seizure following CVA was more common in ischemic type of CVA, especially in embolic form. The risk of early seizure was higher at the first day after CVA. In addition, early seizure was correlated with higher mortality rate in CVA patients. The incidence of early seizures was higher in men. So prescribing prophylactic anticonvulsant drugs may reduce the incidence of post CVA seizure and its complications in these patients.