Chapter 74 - HIV infection

Summary

This chapter presents epidemiology, type and etiology of seizures. It describes the electroencephalography among HIV-seropositive patients with seizures and magnitude and mechanisms of seizures for HIV infection. Intracranial focal lesions account for nearly half the neurological disorders in neuro-AIDS patients. The nature of these focal cerebral lesions can be broadly divided into two distinct groups: opportunistic infections and non-infective lesions. Clinicians faced with the task of controlling seizures in HIV-seropositive patients must consider a number of potential drug-disease and drug-drug interactions when selecting antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) therapy in the face of limited data. HIV-seropositive patients are likely to be receiving multiple medications both for HIV and for prophylaxis against various opportunistic infections, and sometimes for the treatment of opportunistic infections. Antiepileptic and antiretroviral drugs have the potential for interacting through multiple mechanisms including competition for protein binding, enhanced or reduced liver metabolism, and increased viral replication.