Martin Kaddumukasa

Breakthrough Seizures in Uganda's Population: Prevalence and Precipitating Factors Among Patients with Epilepsy on Treatment Attending Mulago Hospital Martin Kaddumukasa

This book is the subject of a study that sought to determine the prevalence and precipitating factors of breakthrough seizures in adults with epilepsy attending Mulago hospital. Break through seizures are associated with premature mortality and increased morbidity but their precipitating factors have not been definitively studied in the Africa setting. This book plugs that information gap. Knowledge of prevalence and associated factors provides preliminary data regarding the extent of the problem as well as providing a stage to address these problems. The study of 256 patients found prevalence of breakthrough seizures among epilepsy patients to be 75.3%. Breakthrough seizures were significantly associated with non-compliance (p<0.0001), duration of treatment (p=0.004) and menses (p=0.013). The commonest precipitating factors in decreasing frequency were non-compliance (46.6%), infections (36.6%), menses (14.5%) and stress (9.8%).