Epidemiological and clinical features of hospitalized patients with febrile seizures in Ramadi, West of Iraq

Abstract

Prospective study of 169 children with febrile seizures (FS) was carried out from 1 st February 2002 to 30 th of January 2003. The proportion of patients with FS among all admitted patients was 7.6%. The mean age of patients with FS was 25.8 months, and the peak age of our patients was 18.19 months. Male to female ratio was 1.3:1. The mean age of the 1 st attacks was 23.5 months, and that for recurrent attacks was 29.8 months. The mean temperature for the 1 st attack was 39.7.C and that for recurrent attacks was 38.2.C. There was a history of prematurely in 13%, a family history of FS in 35% and epilepsy in 17%. Complex FS were seen in 27% and febrile status epilepticus in 3%. Upper and lower respiratory tract infection was the cause of fever in 67% of patients and the majority of them were admitted in the cold months of year. Lumbar puncture was done in 37% of patients. The commonest anticonvulsant used to terminate the seizures was intravenous diazepam in 78.7% followed by rectal diazepam in 8.9%. Intermittent diazepam (45%) was the most widely used anticonvulsant for prophylaxis, followed by phenobarbital (23%).