A ten-year follow-up cohort study of childhood epilepsy: Changes in epilepsy diagnosis with age

Objective To elucidate all of the characteristics of childhood epilepsy, we performed a long-term follow-up study on the patients who visited Okayama University Hospital. Subjects and methods We retrospectively investigated the patients who were involved in the previous epidemiological study and visited Okayama University Hospital for a period of 10 years after December 31, 1999. Results Overall, there were 350 patients’ medical records that were evaluated, and 258 patients with complete clinical information available for a 10-year period were enrolled. Ten patients died and the remaining 82 were lost to follow-up. Of 258 patients with complete information, 153 (59.3%) were seizure-free for at least 5 years. One hundred thirty (50.4%) had intellectual disabilities and 77 (29.8%) had motor disabilities, including 75 (29.1%) with both disabilities on December 31, 2009. Thirty-four patients of 350 (9.7%) changed the epilepsy classification during follow-up. With regard to ten patients who died, nine of them had symptomatic epilepsy, particularly those with severe underlying disorders with an onset during the first year of life. Conclusion Clinical status considerably changed during the decade-long follow-up period in childhood epilepsy. Changes in the epilepsy diagnosis are especially important and should be taken into account in the long-term care of children with epilepsy.