Clinical study to assess the risk factors for recurrence of febrile seizures in tertiary hospital at Cuddalore district

ABSTRACT

Background: Febrile seizures are the most common and benign convulsive disorder in childhood and a frequent cause of emergency hospital admission' Febrile Seizures (FS) are age-dependent and are rare before the age of 9 months and after 5 years of age, the peak age of onset is 14-18months. 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, Raja Muthiah Medical College and Hospital. 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: 54% of the cases were male (27) and 46% of the cases were female (23). Male female ratio was 1.171. Mean temperature in cases and controls were 101.61'1.31 'F and 101.17'0.86 'F respectively. The difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (p-value >0.05). duration of seizure was <5 minutes in 80% of cases (40/50) and >5mins in 20% of the cases (10/50).Conclusions: Simple febrile seizures may slightly increase the risk of developing epilepsy, but have no adverse effects on behaviour, scholastic performance, 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.