To investigate the impact of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, its related social restriction measure (national lockdown) and vaccination campaign on emergency department (ED) accesses for epileptic seizures. Retrospective observational analysis conducted on a consecutive cohort of patients who sought medical care at the ED of the General Hospital of Merano, Italy, from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2021. We investigated the monthly ED attendances for epileptic seizures between the periods before and after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national lockdown (March 2020) using an interrupted time-series analysis with data standardized for 1000 accesses/month. As a further temporal cutoff, we used the start of the national vaccination campaign. Between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2021, a total of 415,005 ED attendances were recorded; 1,254 (0.3 %) were due to epileptic seizures. No significant difference was found in the rate of standardized ED accesses for epileptic seizures in March 2020 (time point of interest) to the pre-pandemic trend (0.33/1000; 95 %CI: −1.05 to 1.71; p = 0.637). Similarly, there was no difference between the pre- and post-pandemic trends (-0.02/1000; 95 %CI: −0.11 to 0.06; p = 0.600). When adopting January 2021 as time point of interest, we found no difference to the pre-vaccination trend (0.83/1000; 95 %CI: −0.48 to 2.15), and no difference in the pre- and post-vaccination trends (-0.12/1000; 95 %CI: −0.27 to 0.04). The COVID-19 pandemic and its related social restrictions (lockdown), as well as the COVID-19 national vaccination campaign, had little impact on ED accesses for epileptic seizures.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 大流行、相关社会限制措施和疫苗接种运动对癫痫发作急诊就诊的影响：中断时间序列分析

旨在调查 COVID-19 大流行的爆发、其相关的社会限制措施（全国封锁）和疫苗接种活动对急诊科 (ED) 癫痫发作的影响。对 2015 年 1 月 1 日至 2021 年 12 月 31 日期间在意大利梅拉诺总医院急诊科就诊的连续队列患者进行回顾性观察分析。我们调查了在此期间癫痫发作的每月急诊就诊人数使用中断时间序列分析和标准化数据为每月 1000 次访问，在 COVID-19 大流行爆发和全国封锁（2020 年 3 月）之前和之后进行了分析。作为进一步的时间截止，我们利用了全国疫苗接种运动的开始。 2015年1月1日至2021年12月31日期间，急诊科就诊人数共计415,005人次； 1,254 例 (0.3%) 是由于癫痫发作。 2020 年 3 月（感兴趣的时间点）癫痫发作的标准化急诊就诊率与大流行前趋势没有显着差异（0.33/1000；95%CI：-1.05 至 1.71；p = 0.637）。同样，大流行前和大流行后的趋势之间也没有差异（-0.02/1000；95%CI：-0.11至0.06；p = 0.600）。当采用 2021 年 1 月作为关注时间点时，我们发现与疫苗接种前趋势没有差异（0.83/1000；95%CI：-0.48 至 2.15），并且疫苗接种前和疫苗后趋势也没有差异（-0.12） /1000；95%CI：-0.27 至 0.04）。 COVID-19 大流行及其相关的社会限制（封锁）以及 COVID-19 全国疫苗接种运动对癫痫发作的急诊就诊影响不大。