A national surveillance study of childhood epilepsy mortality in the UK and Ireland.

In this study, it has been demonstrated that death in children diagnosed with epilepsy occurs mainly in 'complicated epilepsy' secondary to factors associated with neurodisability, consolidating previous data. SUDEP is also a significant cause of paediatric epilepsy mortality that needs further attention. There is a clear need to better understand and reduce the number of epilepsy deaths in children in the UK, and national surveillance of SUDEP is warranted to better understand this entity in paediatric populations.