Clinical characteristics and prognostic indicators of neonatal refractory seizures / 中华围产医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the etiology,clinical characteristics and prognostic indicators of neonatal refractory seizures.Methods Forty-six newborns admitted to the neonatology ward of Peking University First Hospital from January 1,2000 till July 31,2011 with refractory seizures were chosen as the subject,and another 42 newborns with nonrefractory seizures who were admitted at the same period were chosen as the nonrefractory seizures group.The etiologies,clinical characteristics and prognosis of newborns in the two groups were compared.The newborns with refractory seizures were further divided into two subgroupsone was composed of 11 newborns with normal prognosis,and the other was composed of 35 newborns with unfavorable prognosis.The etiologies and clinical characteristics of seizure in thses two subgroups were also compared.Chi-square or Fisher's exact test was applied to compare the difference between groups; Logistic regression analysis was applied to determine the risk factors of refractory seizures and its prognosis.Results (1) The first three common causes of neonatal refractory seizures were severe perinatal brain damage (8/46,17.4％),encephalodysplasia (7/46,15.2％) and congenital metabolic diseases (3/46,6.5％).Seizure attack every day,severe abnormal electroencephalogram,statural convulsivus and unfavorable prognosis were significantly higher in the refractory seizure group than that in the nonrefractory seizures group [91.3％ (42/46) vs 57.1％ (24/42) ; 55.6％ (25/45) vs 5.4％ (2/37) ;17.4％(8/46) vs 0.0％(0/42) ; 76.1％(35/46) vs 21.4％(9/42),x2 =13.665,23.123,Fisher's exact test and 26.236,respectively,all P＜0.01].Seizure attack everyday (OR=3.811,95％CI1.019-14.258,P =0.047) and severe abnormal electroencephalogram (OR =16.384,95％ CI3.421-78.472,P=0.000) were independent risk factors of refractory seizures.(2) Among those newborns with refractory seizures and unfavorable prognosis,the failure rate of phenobarbital administration was 80.0％(28/35),higher than those with normal prognosis (4/11) (Fisher's exact test,P=0.010).Therefore,poor phenobarbital therapeutic efficacy indicated an unfavorable prognosis (OR=12.444,95％CI2.530-61.217,P=0.002).Conclusions The common causes of neonatal refractory seizures are perinatal brain damage,encephalodysplasia and congenital metabolic diseases.The clinical characteristics of refractory seizure are frequent seizure attacks (more than once a day),severe abnormal electroencephalogram and statural convulsivus,and unfavorable prognosis is common.Poor therapeutic effect of phenobarbital prompts adverse outcome.