Frere Hospital is a government funded, teaching hospital in Buffalo City Municipality (BCM) in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. It services mainly people living in low socio-economic circumstances. The purpose of the study is to assess the adequacy of referral for EEG and service for children with epilepsy over a 15-month period. Methods: Review of all children, 0-14 years, having had an EEG in our department between August 2022 and October 2023. The referral area and reason for EEG, age, gender, seizures and epilepsy types (according to the recommendation of ILAE), EEG findings and assessment of management were captured. Results: Annually about 920 children are referred for seizures or epilepsy to Frere pediatric outpatient department. Due to very limited access to EEGs only about 140 of those children receive an EEG. 174 patients were evaluated, 94 (52%) were males, the average age was 6 years 9 months. 81 (46%) of the EEGs were normal, while 93 were pathological and 21 (22%) of those were diagnostic for one of the childhood epilepsy syndromes. 112 (64%) of the children received appropriate treatment at the time of the EEG investigations, while 36% were either wrongly assessed as having seizures or received the wrong treatment for seizure/epilepsy type. Conclusion: Children with epilepsy in BCM are not receiving the investigation they need and are frequently not assessed and treated according to the international guidelines.

Isabel Michaelis
Frere Hospital
South Africa