EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF EPILEPSY IN THE ELDERLY IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: CASE OF SENEGAL.

Introduction Epilepsy is frequent in the elderly. It presents epidemiological, electro clinical and etiological particularities compared to the forms of the child. Few studies have been carried out on the subject, hence this study whose objective was to determine the prevalence of epilepsy in the elderly and to give its evolutionary aspects under treatment. Patients and methods We conducted a retrospective and prospective descriptive study over a period of 12 months from 1 December 2019 to 30 November 2020. This study concerned patients aged 60 years and older hospitalized for epileptic seizures or having presented a seizure during hospitalization. Results 39 patients with epilepsy aged 60 years and older were collected from a total of 674 patients hospitalized during the study period. The hospital prevalence was about 5.78%. Focal seizures dominated the clinical picture. Status epilepticus was frequent. The majority of patients responded better to the prescribed monotherapy, which was often carbamazepine or phenobarbital. Mortality was about 20% and was not statistically related to status mali. Conclusion Epilepsy is frequent in the elderly. Its hospital prevalence was 5.78% of all hospitalized patients. Stroke, especially ischemic stroke, was the most frequent etiology and the manifestations were dominated by focal tonic-clonic seizures. The clinical evolution under anti-epileptic treatment represented by carbamazepine and phenobarbital was favorable in more than 79% of the cases with a mortality of about 20.51%.