Predictors and long-term outcome of seizures after bacterial brain abscess.

Background: Seizures are one of the most important neurological complications of bacterial brain abscesses. A better understanding of the risk factors of seizures following bacterial brain abscesses is needed to predict those who will require treatment.

Methods: A total of 205 patients were enrolled in this 22-year retrospective study. Prognostic variables were analysed based on Cox's proportional hazards model after a minimum of 18 months of follow-up.

Results: Seizures occurred in 48 patients who had bacterial brain abscesses, including acute symptomatic seizures in 17% (35/205) and unprovoked seizures in 6.4% (13/205). Altogether, 27 patients had early seizures and 21 had late seizures. The overall mortality rate in the seizure patients was 23% (11/48) and seven patients progressed to epilepsy.

Conclusion: Cox's proportional hazards model demonstrated that valvular heart diseases as the underlying diseases and the presence of a fronto-parietal distribution of bacterial brain abscess were independently predictive of seizures, and the presence of late seizures was predictive of developing epilepsy. Most first seizures occurred within 3 y after bacterial brain abscesses.