Journal of Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology
Print version ISSN 1676-2649
PORTO, Priscila Moraes de Paula Toledo; FERNANDES, Paula Teixeira; GUERREIRO, Carlos Alberto Mantovani and LI, Li Min. Avoidable death: appropriate management and health care can save lives of people with epilepsy?. J. epilepsy clin. neurophysiol. [online]. 2010, vol.16, n.1, pp. 13-17. ISSN 1676-2649. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1676-26492010000100003.
INTRODUCTION: The epilepsy avoidable death is a neglected issue. Deaths related to epilepsy are still not fully understood. Recently, some studies have showed the methodology of avoidable death, describing the causes of death should not occur in the presence of good quality services and appropriate medical treatment. The impact of studying the causes of avoidable death is relevant and promising for the monitoring and evaluation of performance of health care system for people with epilepsy. PURPOSE: To explore and select the studies emphasizing epilepsy as avoidable death or avoidable mortality studies where the selection of epilepsy was defined within the group of preventable causes of death. METHODOLOGY: The review was based on a search in the database PubMed, using as key words: "mortality", "avoidable", "death" and "epilepsy", without time limits on the date of publication. RESULTS: We observed a variety of studies of epilepsy in the group of avoidable causes of death. So, we could discuss the topics that could guide the actions and public health policies. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest strategies involving the establishment of committees of mortality - institutional, multidisciplinary and confidential - to prevent mortality related to epilepsy. So, the adequate intervention' strategies can be performed to improve the management of people with epilepsy and, consequently, to reduce the mortality on epilepsy.
Keywords : Epilepsy; mortality; avoidable death.