The controversy of birth order as a risk factor for epilepsy: a study from Saudi Arabia.

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between people with epilepsy and birth order.

Methods: A case-control study of 336 epileptics, 15 years and above, and their 1961 full siblings. The data was analysed by birth order and then stratified by sibship size.

Phenytoin Intoxication: Burden and risk factors.

Objective: The aim of the study is to determine: 1) the frequency of patients admitted for phenytoin toxicity and their economic burden; 2) the clinical symptoms and signs of intoxication; 3) the causes or risk factors of intoxication, and 4) the ways to prevent phenytoin toxicity.

Methods: Retrospective review of hospital ICD coded database between 1987 and 1998. All patients with phenytoin intoxication were reviewed.

Clinical aspects of miliary tuberculosis in Saudi adults.

Objective: To review all cases of miliary tuberculosis (MT) over a period of 7 years in a Saudi Arabian population, to determine the clinical and laboratory characteristics and diagnostic methods, and to compare our data with others reported in the literature.

Design: A retrospective case review.

Results: Of 780 cases of active tuberculosis seen over period of 7 years, 47 (6%) had MT.

[Residual cerebellar ataxia following acute phenytoin intoxication].

A 30-year-old man was given high doses of phenytoin together with 4 antituberculous drugs for a seizure associated with a probable brain tuberculoma. He developed hepatic toxicity and his serum phenytoin reached the high level of 298 mumol/l (therapeutic range 40-79 mumol/l). All drugs were stopped and the biological parameters returned progressively to normal over the next 15 days.

Carpal Tunnel Sydrome: A prospective clinical study of one hundred cases.

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