The family attitudes towards febrile convulsions.

Giving adequate information about febrile convulsion and its prognosis would be helpful in alleviating parental stress, and would contribute to decrease in the morbidity of febrile convulsion. In this study, the knowledge level of parents on taking body temperature, and decreasing high fever, their attitudes during febrile convulsion and the impact of febrile convulsion on parents are evaluated. One hundred seventy-four parents of 132 children with FC were enrolled in the study. Twenty-seven per cent of parents had no thermometer at home, 32.8% of them did not know how to take a temperature, 72.2% of them did not know the minimum range of increased body temperature, and 69.5% of them did not know how to decrease the increased body temperature. Thirty-six percent of parents recognised the convulsions when their children suffered from them, the others assumed the convulsion were fainting spells (6.9%), near death state (38.5%) and suffocation (18.4%). Thirty-six per cent of parents brought their children to the hospital without doing anything themselves. Most parents (91.4%) had a fear of a recurrence of febrile convulsion in their children. Seventy-four per cent of parents complained of insomnia, 24.3% parents had dyspeptic symptoms even 14 parents had weight loss due to dyspepsia.

The evaluation of late sequelae of tetanus infection.

Tetanus is still an important cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. Fifty two patients with tetanus were admitted within a 15 year period to our hospital, and 24 of them died. The remaining cases were called for re-evaluation 3-13 years after the infection. Only 10 cases were admitted again, and 6 of them recovered from neonatal tetanus. Their neurological examinations were unremarkable with 5 of them having mild mental retardation. Their EEG's were normal except for one case who had epileptic focus. Their visual and brainstem evoked potentials (VEP, BAEP) were measured and they were in normal ranges. Their results were compared with the results of a control group which consisted of 9 healthy children of matched age and sex.