The fate of World War II veterans with posttraumatic seizures
A. E. Walker and D. Blumer
Department of Surgery/Neurosurgery, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque 87131.
Of 244 men who, as the result of a brain wound sustained in World War II,
had had one or more convulsive seizures, 101 have died. Except for men who
succumbed in the first decade of complications of the wounding--infection,
systemic or mental disease, status epilepticus, etc--the cause of death was
similar to that of men of similar age in the general population. Of the men
whose status is known, 74% have had no unconscious attacks in the past ten
years or in the ten years before their death. The absence of seizures is
not related to the continued ingestion of anticonvulsant medication.
Approximately 25% of the men have had varying degrees of mental
deterioration. The death rate of men with posttraumatic epilepsy is higher
than that of normal men. Wounds of the right cerebral hemisphere seem to
shorten the life span more than similar injuries of the left hemisphere.
