Background

Stroke is still the second leading cause of death with annual mortality rate of about 5.5 million, and is also the first cause of disability (50%) worldwide. Generally, ischemic strokes account for about 80% of stroke cases while hemorrhagic stroke accounts for 20% of cases [1, 2]. Stroke had accounted to be the cause of epilepsy in the elderly while 30–50% of patients diagnosed with epilepsy after stroke [3, 38].

Our study has a few limitations. We reviewed the medical history of patients retrospectively. This small sample may have limited the derivation of adjusted Odd Ratios with multiple predictor variables. We did not include patients with acute symptomatic seizure during acute onset of stroke that may be a risk of further epilepsy, also did not evaluate functional outcome of epilepsy because of some limitation data. Further studies are needed with a prospective, larger sample, and multicentred study to determine more comprehensive epidemiological data, risk factors, EEG patterns, clinical epilepsy concerning seizure pattern, seizure control, anti-seizure medications, and also functional outcomes of post-stroke epilepsy patients. We also recommend further studies with distinguished samples between ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke to determine the characteristics in own type of stroke.

Conclusion

Our study confirmed that most patients had focal-to-bilateral seizure patterns that occurred 1–2 years after stroke, and had poor functional outcomes. Men had 3.325 times more likely to develop post-stroke epilepsy than women. Also, NIHSS score ≥ 15 correlated and 5.094 times more likely to develop post-stroke epilepsy. Ischemic stroke had a peak of epilepsy onset at 1–2 years after stroke and women had significant abnormalities showing on EEG recording than men.