Infezioni cerebrali e crisi epilettiche in neurochirurgia

In this clinical study we present epileptic complications observed in a group of pts admitted to the Neurosurgical Clinic of the University of Milano for brain infections between Jan 76 and May 90. All patients were submitted to CT studies. 63 pts have been observed in the considered period. 16 pts died during hospital stay. Of the 47 discharged pts, all assuming antiepileptic drug prophylaxis, 45 (18 females, 27 males, age ranging from 5 to 69 years) have been followed-up (6 months to 10 years). Most patients had a brain abscess at admission. Epileptic seizures were a presenting symptom in 23.8% of the patients. 9 patients (20%) had seizures after discharge from the hospital. All seizures appeared within one year from admission and had a trend to repeat although all patients regularly assumed drug prophylaxis. We did not find any relation between seizures before and after hospital admission. A positive relation has been found between dimensions of the abscess and seizures, the latter beeing more frequent in pts with big lesions, and with frontoparietal localization. Seizures seem also to be less frequent in patients in whom abscess was surgically removed with its capsule vs. patients in whom it was only drained.