Clinical pattern and outcome of seizure among adult patients visiting St. Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College Emergency Room, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2023

Abstract

Abstract Background Patients with seizure disorders are common in the emergency department, yet little is known regarding the pattern management and outcome of these patients. Objective: This study was performed to define the frequency of patients with seizure disorders in the ED patient population and to determine possible seizure etiologies, characteristics of diagnostic activities, treatments, and disposition Methods: Institution-based Cross-sectional descriptive study was done at Saint Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College including 308 patients with acute seizures who were admitted from January 1 2019 to December 31st, 2022. Results: Of the 40,568 patients who presented to St. Paul’s Hospital adult emergency department from January 1 2019 to December 31st, 2022. 454 (1.11%) had seizures. Three hundred eight charts were available for analysis and make up the study population. One hundred sixty (51.9%) were male. One hundred fifty-three (49.7%) came with a referral from another health facility. Antiepileptic drugs were given in 278 (90%) of patients. The underlying cause of seizure was not identified in the ED for 224(72%) patients. New-onset seizures were present in 135 (43.8%) patients. Status epilepticus occurred in 36 (11.6%) patients. Two hundred eighty-three (91.8%) of all patients were discharged from ED. Conclusions: Seizures are a common presentation in the ED population, and they place a significant burden on ED resources. The most frequent form of seizure in an emergency is generalized tonic-clonic. Two hundred twenty-four (72%) patients with seizure-related presentations had no documented cause of seizure and more than one-third of all patients had new onset seizures. Most of the patients were discharged and linked from the ED. Keywords: Seizure, Clinical pattern, Emergency department, outcome