A Retrospective Study of Clinical Presentation of Child with Febrile Seizure and Its Duration

Abstract

<i>Background</i>: Febrile Seizure is defined as seizure occurring during febrile episode (body temperature > 100.4°F or 38°C) in a child between 6 to 60 months, in absence of CNS infection, metabolic abnormalities, neurological condition and a history of prior afebrile seizure. Some of the major concerns regarding febrile seizure are its duration and recurrence. Risk factors associated with its duration are poorly understood. <i>Method</i>: A retrospective study was conducted from January to December 2018 among children admitted to Siddhi Memorial Hospital (for Women and Children), Bhaktapur (Nepal) with a diagnosis of febrile seizure. Information on those children, including gender, age of onset, type of seizure, duration of seizure etc., were collected from patient records. Children meeting the standard definition of febrile seizure were included in the study. Data analysis was done using Microsoft Excel and STATA, version 15. A p value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. <i>Result</i>: A total of 1389 children had been admitted to pediatric department during the study period. Among them, 124 children (i.e. 8.9% of total admission) met the criteria of febrile seizure and were hence included in the study. Majority of the cases had Simple febrile Seizure (77%) and the remaining had Complex febrile seizure (23%). The study population was of mixed gender (60% male and 40% female). Mean age of presentation was 23.7 (±11.7) months. The highest prevalence was seen in children < 2 years of age. Mean duration of seizure was 5.11 (±4.84) minutes. URTI and AGE were the leading cause of febrile seizure, with prevalence of 45% and 42% respectively. 10% of children were stunted and 5% of children were wasted. Mean height for age was -0.43 (±1.5) SD and mean weight for height was -0.31 (±1.02) SD. Mean serum sodium, potassium and calcium level were 133 (±2.81) meq/l, 4.4 (±3.0) meq/l and 8.14 (±0.99) mg/dl respectively and mean random blood sugar was 108.4 (±24.17) mg/dl. No association was found between serum sodium level and duration of seizure (correlation=-0.19, p=0.832), serum potassium level and duration seizure (correlation=-0.03, p=0.7). Positive correlation were found between serum calcium level and duration of seizure (correlation=+0.25, p=0.03), as well as blood sugar level and duration of seizure (correlation=+0.19, p=0.027). <i>Conclusion</i>: Since blood sugar and serum calcium levels tended to be high among our study subjects, their impact on duration of febrile seizure should be investigated further. Serum sodium and potassium level had no effect on seizure duration.