The primary prevention of epilepsy: a report of the prevention task force of the international league against epilepsy

Abstract

Among the causes of epilepsy are several that are currently preventable. In this review, we summarize the public health burden of epilepsy arising from such causes and suggest priorities for primary epilepsy prevention. We conducted a systematic review of published epidemiologic studies of epilepsy of 4 preventable etiologic categories—perinatal insults, traumatic brain injury (TBI), central nervous system (CNS) infection, and stroke. Applying consistent criteria, we assessed the quality of each study and extracted data on measures of risk from those with adequate quality ratings, summarizing findings across studies as medians and interquartile ranges. Among higher‐quality population‐based studies, the median prevalence of active epilepsy across all ages was 11.1 per 1000 population in lower‐ and middle‐income countries (LMIC) and 7.0 per 1000 in high‐income countries (HIC) …