NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People with epilepsy sustain more injuries generally than do unaffected individuals, with rates of some types of injury such as head fractures being more than doubled, according to findings from a Canadian population-based study.

Dr. Nathalie Jetté with the University of Calgary in Alberta and colleagues analyzed data covering 1.4 million individuals in a large health region. As reported in Epilepsia published online August 17, they identified 8,890 subjects with epilepsy and matched them to 26,670 controls for age and sex.

The investigators found that 20.6% of the subjects with epilepsy and 16.1% of those without epilepsy sustained at least one injury in a 1-year period (p < 0.001). The rate was significantly higher among epileptics for 11 of the 16 types of injuries studied. The adjusted odds ratios for these 11 types of injury were:
–2.6 for head (skull and facial) fracture
–2.2 for neck/thoracic/trunk fracture
–1.3 for upper limb fracture
–1.8 for lower limb fracture
–1.4 for upper limb dislocation
–1.1 for neck/thoracic/ trunk crushing injury
–1.3 for upper limb crushing injury
–1.3 for lower limb crushing injury
–1.7 for intracranial injury
–2.2 for other head injury
–1.6 for multiple injuries.

Dr. Jetté and colleagues conclude, “Future prospective controlled studies are needed to investigate predictors of injuries and their prevention with specially designed programs, particularly as most tend to occur in the home setting.”

Reference:

The incidence of injuries in persons with and without epilepsy—A population-based study

Epilepsia 2010.