Risk Factors for Developing Seizures After a Stroke

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Abstract
Summary: We evaluated development of seizures in 219 consecutive patients who had ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. Subjects with transitory ischemic attacks, sub-arachnoid, subdural, and epidural hemorrhages or those with previous history of epilepsy were excluded. Mean follow-up time was 11.5 months (range 1–72 months). Twenty-two of 219 stroke patients (10.04%) had seizures. Twelve (54.55%) were of early onset (<1 month after the stroke), and 10 (45.45%) were of late onset. No statistically significant differences were evident between the early- and late-onset seizure group in comparisons of type of stroke, localization, and size of the lesion. Six of 22 patients (27%) had seizure recurrence. Seizures developed in (a) 13 of 183 patients with ischemic stroke (7.1%) and 9 of 36 patients with hemorrhagic stroke (25%) (p = 0.01); (b) 16 of 93 patients with cortical lesions (17%) and 6 of 126 patients with subcortical lesions (4.7%) (p = 0.01); and (c) 14 of 66 patients with a lesion comprising more than one lobe (21.2%) and 8 of 153 patients with a lesion comprising less than one lobe (5.2%) (p < 0.01). We conclude that patients with hemorrhagic stroke, cortical lesions, and lesions involving more than one lobe are at higher risk of developing seizures.