Introduction:

Epilepsy as a highly prevalent neurological disease worldwide represents one of the most stigmatizing pathologies and one with the greatest social impact. In countries where health systems are deficient and highly centralized, telemedicine is a transcendental tool to bring health care closer to the vulnerable individual.

Objective:

The objective of this study is to evaluate the applicability of neurological medical teleconsultation for the recruitment of patients with Epilepsy.

Material and Methods: The study design is observational, retrospective and cross-sectional. The data was provided by the epilepsy diagnosis telemedicine system of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare, between January-2016 and December-2020. The DBVisualizer v9.5.6 program and the MySQL EXCEL database were used through descriptive analytics.

Results:

During the evaluated period, 12,993 Electroencephalogram studies were performed, 6,460 (49.7%) women and 6,533 (50.2%) men, the age range for both sexes was 0-95 years, 7,864 tracings were found normal, 2,948 (22.6%) were pathological, 919 (7.07%) non-specific and 1081 (8.31%) were returned for not meeting basic quality standards. The subtypes cataloged in pathological; generalized findings 1262 (42.8%), focal secondarily generalized 1321 (44.8%), focal 296 (10%) and 69 (2.3%) patterns of brain death.

Conclusion:

The usefulness of a telemedicine system that allows specialized care to be brought closer to patients who live in remote areas of large care centers should be considered as a very useful tool in countries with centralized health care and areas with very low population density.

        · resumen en Español     · texto en Español     · Español ( pdf )