Early poststroke seizures following thrombolysis and/or thrombectomy for acute stroke: Clinical and stroke characteristics

In this retrospective study, we explored the clinical and stroke characteristics of patients treated with thrombolysis and/or mechanical thrombectomy for an acute stroke and experiencing early poststroke seizures within 7 days of the cerebrovascular accident. Patients with prior epilepsy, primary intracerebral hemorrhage or transient ischemic attacks, or taking antiepileptic drugs were excluded. We retrospectively identified 32 patients admitted between 2010 and 2016 (mean age 75 years; range: 49-90; 14 females and 18 males). A cortical stroke was found in more than 70% of patients. Most epileptic seizures were focal aware (46.7%) or generalized convulsive (43.3%). The median time between stroke onset and seizure occurrence was 2 days; in 75.9% of the cases, seizures occurred within the first 3 days. This retrospective case series is the largest published so far providing details on clinical features of patients with early poststroke seizures following different reperfusion therapies, not only restricted to intravenous (i.v.) thrombolysis. Early poststroke seizures following reperfusion therapies are associated with cortical stroke involvement, are usually focal without impairment of awareness or generalized convulsive, and occur mostly within the first 3 days. Further studies are needed to clarify whether the low prevalence of focal impaired awareness seizures (and nonconvulsive seizures/status) is real or reflects the failure to recognize and correctly diagnose this seizure type in the acute poststroke period (risk of underascertainment due to the lack of systematic video-electroencephalogram (EEG) recording in patients with stroke and difficulties in recognizing these seizures). This article is part of the Special Issue "Seizures & Stroke".