Post-traumatic Epilepsy

Post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) is a form of epilepsy that results from brain damage caused by physical trauma to the brain (traumatic brain injury, abbreviated TBI). A person with PTE suffers repeated post-traumatic seizures (PTS, seizures that result from TBI) more than a week after the initial injury. PTE is estimated to constitute 5% of all cases of epilepsy and over 20% of cases of symptomatic epilepsy (in which seizures are caused by an identifiable organic brain condition).

It is not known how to predict who will develop epilepsy after TBI and who will not. However, the likelihood that a person will develop PTE is influenced by the severity and type of injury; for example penetrating injuries and those that involve bleeding within the brain confer a higher risk. The onset of PTE can occur within a short time of the physical trauma that causes it, or months or years after. People with head trauma may remain at a higher risk for seizures than the general population even decades after the injury. PTE may be caused by several biochemical processes that occur in the brain after trauma, including overexcitation of brain cells and damage to brain tissues by free radicals.

Diagnostic measures include electroencephalography and brain imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging, but these are not totally reliable. Antiepileptic drugs do not prevent the development of PTE after head injury, but may be used to treat the condition if it does occur. When medication does not work to control the seizures, surgery may be needed. Modern surgical techniques for PTE have their roots in the 19th century, but trepanation (cutting a hole in the skull) may have been used for the condition in ancient cultures.