Prognosis
The prognosis for epilepsy due to trauma is worse than that for epilepsy of undetermined cause. People with PTE are thought to have shorter life expectancies than people with brain injury who do not suffer from seizures. Compared to people with similar structural brain injuries but without PTE, people with PTE take longer to recover from the injury, have more cognitive and motor problems, and perform worse at everyday tasks. This finding may suggest that PTE is an indicator of a more severe brain injury, rather than a complication that itself worsens outcome. PTE has also been found to be associated with worse social and functional outcomes but not to worsen patients' rehabilitation or ability to return to work. However, people with PTE may have trouble finding employment if they admit to having seizures, especially if their work involves operating heavy machinery.
The period of time between an injury and development of epilepsy varies, and it is not uncommon for an injury to be followed by a latent period with no recurrent seizures. The longer a person goes without developing seizures, the lower the chances are that epilepsy will develop. At least 80–90% of people with PTE have their first seizure within two years of the TBI. People with no seizures within three years of the injury have only a 5% chance of developing epilepsy. However, one study found that head trauma survivors are at an increased risk for PTE as many as 10 years after moderate TBI and over 20 years after severe TBI. Since head trauma is fairly common and epilepsy can occur late after the injury, it can be difficult to determine whether a case of epilepsy resulted from head trauma in the past or whether the trauma was incidental.
The question of how long a person with PTE remains at higher risk for seizures than the general population is controversial. About half of PTE cases go into remission, but cases that occur later may have a smaller chance of doing so.
Read more about this topic: Post-traumatic Epilepsy