Analysis of the etiology, clinical picture and treatment of epilepsy in children in the north-eastern region of Poland.

Epilepsy is one of the most frequent diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) in children. It is considered that roughly 50% of epilepsies begin during childhood. The Department of Childrens' Neurology of the Medical Academy of Białystok embraces with medical attention over 500 children with epilepsy from the north-eastern region of Poland. The aim of the study was the analysis of etiology, clinical symptoms and treatment of epilepsy in children, who are under the medical attention of our Department. 392 children aged from 7 months to 18 and 2/12 years were included in the study. In the analysed groups were 46.6% girls and 53.4% boys. 44.4% of the children live in cities and 55.6% in small towns or villages. The etiology of epilepsy was established in 48.7% of the children. The most common etiology of epilepsy were hypoxic-ischemic damages in perinatal period, developmental malformation of the brain, craniocerebral injuries and neuroinfections in the neonatal period. In 50.3% of the children the etiology of epilepsy was unknown. The most common types of seizures were primary and secondary generalised tonic-clonic seizures. 92.6% of the patients received the antiepileptic drugs during the study. Monotherapy was administered in 66.0%, politherapy in 26.5% of the children. The results relating to the etiology and clinical picture of epilepsy in our children are consisted with many dates from literature. It is a favourable observation, that in many children monotherapy is an effective treatment.