Version 1
: Received: 25 May 2023 / Approved: 26 May 2023 / Online: 26 May 2023 (11:00:40 CEST)
How to cite:
Moon, J.U.; Yoon, D.H.; Jung, M.H. Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Seizure Control in Children with Epilepsy. Preprints2023, 2023051927. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1927.v1
Moon, J.U.; Yoon, D.H.; Jung, M.H. Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Seizure Control in Children with Epilepsy. Preprints 2023, 2023051927. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1927.v1
Moon, J.U.; Yoon, D.H.; Jung, M.H. Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Seizure Control in Children with Epilepsy. Preprints2023, 2023051927. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1927.v1
APA Style
Moon, J.U., Yoon, D.H., & Jung, M.H. (2023). Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Seizure Control in Children with Epilepsy. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1927.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Moon, J.U., Da Hye Yoon and Min Ho Jung. 2023 "Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Seizure Control in Children with Epilepsy" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1927.v1
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted health care worldwide. As the pandemic has been prolonged, quarantine restrictions have been lightened gradu-ally, which can influence outcomes of pediatric patients with chronic disease such as epi-lepsy by increase of susceptibility of the COVID-19 infection. The aim of this study was to determine impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on seizure control and identify potential risk factors that might worsen seizure attacks during the pandemic in children with epilepsy. We performed a retrospective chart review of 48 pediatric patients with epilepsy during the COVID-19 pandemic from January 2016 to July 2022.
During the COVID-19 pandemic period, 25% of pediatric patients experienced sei-zure worsening, showing an increase in seizure frequency or duration or both.
Factors associated with worsening seizures during pandemic were: diagnosis of epi-lepsy less than one year, comorbid conditions with cerebral palsy or having a tracheosto-my or a PEG, and infection with other viruses (respiratory syncytial virus, influenza virus A, influenza virus B) rather than COVID-19 infection.
Our finding highlights the need to proactively monitor and regularly follow up (es-pecially short period of time) patients after they are diagnosed with epilepsy. It is also important to properly manage those who are susceptible to serious illness and keep sea-sonal viral infections under surveillance to manage exacerbated seizure in children with epilepsy. Furthermore, pediatric physicians should not overlook surveillance of seasonal respiratory viruses since quarantine restrictions are getting eased.
Medicine and Pharmacology, Neuroscience and Neurology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
