TY - JOUR
T1 - Treatment of first tonic - Clonic seizure does not affect mortality
T2 - Long-term follow-up of a randomised clinical trial
AU - Leone, Maurizio A.
AU - Vallalta, Roberto
AU - Solari, Alessandra
AU - Beghi, Ettore
PY - 2011/8
Y1 - 2011/8
N2 - Background: Information on the effects of early treatment of seizures on mortality is scarce. The authors assessed the survival of patients with a first generalised tonic-clonic seizure, randomised to immediate treatment (treated) versus treatment only in the event of seizure recurrence (untreated), over a 20-year period. Methods: The authors followed 419 patients. The median follow-up was 19.7 years (range 0.2-21.5) for a total of 7867 person-years. Results: 40 persons (9.6%) died during follow-up, 19 (8.9%) treated and 21 (10.3.%) untreated. The probability of surviving was 100% at 1 year, 97% (95% CI 95% to 99%) at 5 years, 94% (91-97) at 10 years and 91% (87-95) at 20 years in treated patients and 100%, 98% (95-100), 97% (94-99) and 89% (85-94), respectively, in untreated patients (p=0.7). After adjustment for treatment of first seizure and putative risk factors (gender, age, seizure type, previous uncertain seizures, family history of seizures, pre-, peri- and postnatal risk factors, remote aetiological factors for epilepsy, abnormal neurological examination, CT or MRI abnormalities, EEG abnormalities and acute treatment), only the presence of aetiological factors for epilepsy predicted a higher mortality (HR 3.4, 95% CI 2.5 to 4.3%; p
AB - Background: Information on the effects of early treatment of seizures on mortality is scarce. The authors assessed the survival of patients with a first generalised tonic-clonic seizure, randomised to immediate treatment (treated) versus treatment only in the event of seizure recurrence (untreated), over a 20-year period. Methods: The authors followed 419 patients. The median follow-up was 19.7 years (range 0.2-21.5) for a total of 7867 person-years. Results: 40 persons (9.6%) died during follow-up, 19 (8.9%) treated and 21 (10.3.%) untreated. The probability of surviving was 100% at 1 year, 97% (95% CI 95% to 99%) at 5 years, 94% (91-97) at 10 years and 91% (87-95) at 20 years in treated patients and 100%, 98% (95-100), 97% (94-99) and 89% (85-94), respectively, in untreated patients (p=0.7). After adjustment for treatment of first seizure and putative risk factors (gender, age, seizure type, previous uncertain seizures, family history of seizures, pre-, peri- and postnatal risk factors, remote aetiological factors for epilepsy, abnormal neurological examination, CT or MRI abnormalities, EEG abnormalities and acute treatment), only the presence of aetiological factors for epilepsy predicted a higher mortality (HR 3.4, 95% CI 2.5 to 4.3%; p
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U2 - 10.1136/jnnp.2010.240069
DO - 10.1136/jnnp.2010.240069
M3 - Article
C2 - 21531706
AN - SCOPUS:79960139070
VL - 82
SP - 924
EP - 927
JO - Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry
JF - Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry
SN - 0022-3050
IS - 8
ER -