Clinical and etiological characteristics of epilepsy in people from Niger: a hospital‐based study from a tertiary care referral center of Niamey, Niger

OBJECTIVES: Epilepsy constitutes a major public health concern in the world particularly in developing countries, especially in sub‐Saharan African countries. We designed this study to evaluate epilepsy management at a tertiary referral center in Niger to obtain a comprehensive understanding to determine the intrahospital deficiencies to improve and to make recommendations in terms to improve epilepsy management in Niger. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study at the Neurology Outpatient Clinic of the National Hospital of Niamey (Niger) between May 2013 and May 2018 (5 years), collecting all cases of patients diagnosed with epilepsy by the neurologists. From the registers of consultation, we collected for each patient the demographic, clinical, etiological, and therapeutic data, as well as the outcomes during follow‐up visits. RESULTS: Of the 4576 patients seen during the period of the study, 1350 patients consulted for epilepsy with a hospital frequency of 29.5%. The mean age of the patients was 18.55 ± 17.15 years (range: 3 months to 83 years) with a predominance of the male sex (sex ratio at 1.5). Patients younger than 20 years were the most represented (61.6%). All patients underwent EEG. Only 463 patients (35.2%) underwent brain imaging. Generalized tonic‐clonic seizures were the most frequent (50%) followed by typical absences seizures (11.8%). Cerebrovascular disease, central nervous system infections, and head injuries were the main etiologies. First‐generation AEDs were the most prescribed (99%). The proportion of patients with drug‐resistance was 9.6%. SIGNIFICANCE: Our study shows limited access to newer generation AEDs and diagnostic tests of epilepsy in Niger. Considerable efforts should be made to facilitate for people living with epilepsy the accessibility to diagnostic tests and newer generation AEDs in order to improve the quality of epilepsy management in Niger.