Study of febrile seizures among children admitted in a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Background: Febrile seizure is a common problem in children below 6years of age. This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical profile of children presenting with febrile seizures and to identify the risk factors for recurrence of febrile seizures in these children. Materials and Methods: The study was done on all children in the 6 month to 6 year age who were diagnosed as having febrile convulsion admitted in Pediatric ward or intensive care unit of Bangalore Baptist Hospital a tertiary care centre, Bangalore from January 2018 to august 2019. Results: There were112children which constituted 7.8% of total Paediatric admissions. Mean age of presentation was 25.815.19 months with peak in less than 2 years of age. Mean duration of seizure was 1.25 ( 1.23) min. Out of which 64% had a febrile seizure for the first time and 36% had recurrent febrile seizures and 68 (60.7%) were malesand 44 (39.2%) females. Simple febrile seizure and complex febrile seizure were observed in 80 (71.4%) and 22 (19.6%) of patients respectively. The majority of children (71.8%) had a generalized tonic-clonic seizure followed by tonic seizuresaround 17.3% had positive family history. Upper respiratory tract infections were the commonest cause of fever in these children. Low temperature at the onset of Febrile Seizure (p=0.001), short duration of fever before the onset of Febrile Seizure (0.026) and atypical Febrile Seizure (p=0.022) were the risk factors for a recurrent febrile seizure. Conclusions: Febrile Seizure is a common pediatric problem seen in males, observed predominantly in children below the age of two years and simple febrile seizure was the commonest variety. Almost onethird of children with Febrile Seizure are at risk for recurrence at a later date. The risk factors for these recurrences are modest rise in body temperature at the onset of febrile seizure, the onset of seizure within 12 hours of fever and atypical presentation. Keywords: Febrile seizure, FS.