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Citation |
Vaaramo K, Puljula J, Tetri S, Juvela S, Hillbom M. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2014; 85(6): 598-602. |
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Affiliation |
Department of Neurology, Oulu University Hospital, , Oulu, Finland. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2014, BMJ Publishing Group) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
23761917 |
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Abstract |
BACKGROUND: It is not known whether alcohol-related head trauma predicts the new-onset seizures, particularly alcohol-related seizures. OBJECTIVE: We investigated risk factors for new-onset seizures in a cohort of 739 head trauma subjects. METHODS: All subjects with head trauma attending Oulu University Hospital during 1999, including children and very old people but excluding persons with previous seizures and/or neurological diseases, were enrolled and followed up until the end of 2009. The Finnish National Hospital Discharge Register was used to identify all visits due to seizures during the 10-year follow-up. Dates of death were obtained from the official Cause-of-Death Statistics. Cox proportional hazard regression models and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to identify predictors of new-onset seizures. RESULTS: New-onset seizures were observed in 42 out of the 739 subjects (5.7%). An alcohol-related index injury (adjusted HR 2.50, 95% CI 1.30 to 4.82, p=0.006), moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) as the index trauma (3.13, 1.46 to 6.71, p=0.003) and preceding psychiatric disease (3.23, 1.23 to 9.21, p=0.028) were significant predictors of new-onset seizures during the follow-up after adjustment for age and sex. An alcohol-related index injury was the only independent predictor of the occurrence of an alcohol-related new-onset seizure (adjusted HR 12.13, 95% CI 2.70 to 54.50, p=0.001), and these seizures (n=19) developed more frequently among subjects without (n=14) than with (n=5) TBI. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that alcohol-related head trauma predicts new-onset seizures, particularly alcohol-related seizures. A brief intervention is needed in order to prevent the development of alcohol-related seizures. Language: en |