Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

A meta-analysis of key risk factors for sudden unexpected death in epilepsy

Yanjun Liu¹ , Yajin Huang^1,2

¹Department of Neurology, Epilepsy Center, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730030, China; ²The Second Clinical Medical College, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730030, China.

For correspondence:- Yanjun Liu Email: liuyanjunlzu@163.com Tel:+869315190631

Accepted: 27 February 2023 Published: 31 March 2023

Citation: Liu Y, Huang Y. A meta-analysis of key risk factors for sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. Trop J Pharm Res 2023; 22(3):647-656 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v22i3.23

© 2023 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To examine the risk factors (RFs), associated with Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP), and the quantitative standards required to measure them

Methods: The literature on RFs associated with SUDEP was systematically reviewed up to August 2020 in databases, including PubMed, the Cochrane Database and Embase. Revised Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was performed to determine the quality of each study in this meta-analysis (MA), with a score of ≥ 3, indicating good quality. Any controversies in data extraction and quality assessment were resolved through counsel or adjudication with a third researcher.

Results: An initial screening of the literature following the search strategy and manual inclusion yielded a total of 767 studies. After excluding duplicates as well as articles that did not match the topic, 112 studies remained. Twenty-nine studies were finally selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. After a careful review of the full text, nine studies were included in the MA.

Conclusion: The five RFs for SUDEP included age at the onset of epilepsy ≤15 years, generalized-tonic-clonic seizure, seizure frequency ≥50 seizures/year, treatment with a combination of multiple antiepileptic drugs, and history of alcohol abuse.

Keywords: Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), Risk factors, Meta-analysis, Antiepileptic drugs, Alcohol abuse, Seizure frequency