Preventing Tomorrow’s Sudden Cardiac Death in Epilepsy Today: What Should Physicians Know about This?

Approximately 1% of the population has epilepsy, the most common neurological disorder. Moreover, people with epilepsy are more likely to die prematurely than those without epilepsy, and the most common epilepsy-related category of death is sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). Information concerning risk factors for SUDEP is conflicting, but potential risk factors include: age, early onset of epilepsy, duration of epilepsy, uncontrolled seizures, seizure frequency, number of antiepileptic drugs and winter temperatures. Additionally, the cause of SUDEP is still unknown; however, the most commonly suggested mechanisms are cardiac abnormalities during and between seizures. This review discusses the epidemiology, risk factors, etiology, and preventative measures in the management of SUDEP.

• Publication year

  2008

• Venue

  Clinics

• Publication date

  2008-06-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1590/S1807-59322008000300017PMID 18568251PMCID 2664237
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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