Seizures in Patients with Brain Tumors.

Yang, Seung Ho; Lee, Kwan Sung; Lee, Tae Kyu; Jeun, Sin Soo; Park, Chun Kun; Hong, Yong Kil

Original Article

Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society 2007;41(6): 387-390.

Seung Ho Yang, Kwan Sung Lee, Tae Kyu Lee, Sin Soo Jeun, Chun Kun Park, Yong Kil Hong

Department of Neurosurgery, Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea. hongyk@catholic.ac.kr

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE
S: To determine the presentation, incidence, and risk factors of seizures in patients treated for brain tumors.
METHODS
One hundred patients who consecutively underwent a craniotomy for the treatment of supratentorial brain tumors were assessed. The pathologies of the patients enrolled in the study included glioma (n=56), meningioma (n=31), metastatic brain tumor (n=7), primary central nervous system lymphoma (n=4), and central neurocytoma (n=2). Anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) were administered to all patients for up to six months after the surgery. Pre-defined variables for outcome analysis included tumor grade and location, extent of tumor resection, number of seizures, age at tumor diagnosis, adjuvant therapy, medication and radiological abnormalities.
RESULTS
Thirty patients (30%) presented at least a single episode of seizure at the time of admission. Five of these patients (16.7%) developed the seizure during the follow-up period. Newly developed seizure was noticed in six out of seventy patients (8.6%) without prior seizure. Histopathology was malignant gliomas in 10 and supratentorial meningioma in one. Early seizure developed only in two patients.
CONCLUSION
Compared with patients without seizure, patients with seizure at the time of admission showed younger age (p=0.003), a higher portion of low-grade glioma (p=0.001), tumor location in the frontal and temporal lobes (p=0.003) and cortical involvement (p=0.017). Our study suggestes that tumor progression is considered a significant risk factor for seizure development in glioma patients.

Key Words: Brain tumor; Anti-epileptic drugs; Seizure; Risk factors