Profile of epilepsy in Lagos, Nigeria.

A total of 396 non-selected epileptic patients seen in Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) over a period of two years were clinically assessed and investigated for the purpose of classification; 378 were classifiable and 18 unclassifiable. About 25% of the classifiable patients had generalised epilepsy and 75% partial epilepsy. The commonest form of generalised epilepsy was grand mal and that of partial epilepsy was partial epilepsy with complex symptomatology. Seizure classification showed a similar pattern to that of epilepsies. The commonest form of generalised seizures were tonic-clonic seizures and those of partial seizures were complex partial seizures with simple partial onset, that secondarily generalised. Although the majority of patients with both generalised and partial epilepsies had seizure onset before the age of 20 years, a significantly higher percentage of patients with generalised epilepsy compared to partial epilepsy had seizures before the age of 10 years while a higher percentage of patients with partial epilepsy had seizures onset after the age of 10 years. The average age of onset of generalised epilepsy was lower than that of partial epilepsy.