HES on... Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a relatively widespread condition, affecting almost half a million people in the UK. This article gives an overview of the condition and highlights related 2009-10 HES data.

What is Epilepsy?

Epilepsy is a condition that affects a person's nervous system; the normal pattern of neuronal activity (the activity of cells that transmit signals in your nervous system) becomes disturbed.

Patients with epilepsy have repeated seizures (or fits) due to brief changes in the electrical signals in their brain. These can last from a few seconds to several minutes, and can have symptoms from muscle contractions through to a loss of consciousness.

Who does it affect?

According to NHS Choices, around 456,000 people in the UK are affected by epilepsy.

Epilepsy can affect anyone at any age, a finding that HES data for 2009-10 supports (see graph below) with the 0-4 years age group more prone to attacks leading to a stay in hospital.

HES facts and figures

HES data for epilepsy in 2009-10 (diagnosis code G40 in ICD-10) show that:

• most (84 per cent) hospital admissions for epilepsy are emergency admissions, rather than from waiting lists.
• the average (mean) time that patients remained in hospital was 3.8 days.
• the majority of patients admitted to hospital for epilepsy don't undergo procedures (73 per cent). Of those that do, the most common procedures were:
• Diagnostic imaging of central nervous system (U05 in OPCS-4.4) - 16 per cent
• Neuropsychology tests (U22 in OPCS-4.4) - 3 per cent
• Neurophysiological operations (A84 in OPCS-4.4) - 2 per cent
• it was responsible for 54,428 episodes of admitted patient care, accounting for 153,035 occupied bed days.

More information on this topic is available from NHS Choices here.