A study to assess the risk factors for febrile seizures in a tertiary hospital

Abstract

Background: Febrile seizures are one of the most common and benign convulsive disorder in childhood and a frequent cause of hospital admission Febrile Seizures (FS) are age-dependent and are rare before the age of 6 months and after 5 years of age, the peak age of onset is 16-18months. To assess the clinical profile in children with febrile seizures and compare these values with febrile children without seizures. Methods: The study included children admitted with bronchiolitis in between during the period of August 2018 to March 2019 at Department of Pediatrics, kempegowda institute of medical sciences. It is a case-control study. The study group includes 50 cases (febrile seizures) and 50 controls (fever without seizures) aged 6months to 5 years (6 - 60 months) attending the pediatric out-patient department. Results: 56% of the cases were male (28) and 44% of the cases were female (22). Male: female ratio was 1.27:1. Mean temperature in cases and controls were 102.611.31 F and 101.170.86 F respectively. The difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (p-value >0.05). duration of seizure was 5mins in 14% of the cases. Conclusions: Simple febrile seizure increase the risk of developing epilepsy, but have no adverse effects on behaviour, school performane, or neurocognition. The risk of developing epilepsy is increased further in children with a history of complex febrile seizures. A strong association exists between febrile status epilepticus or febrile seizures characterized by focal symptoms and later development of temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis