Management of febrile seizure and differentiating it from epilepsy: A short review

Febrile seizure is the most common seizures seen in infancy and pre-school era. They are mostly benign in nature. There are two categories of febrile seizures, simple and complex. Both the International League against Epilepsy and the American academy of paediatrics have published definitions on the classification of febrile seizures. Simple febrile seizures are mostly benign, but a prolonged (complex) febrile seizure can have long term consequences. Most children who have a febrile seizure have normal health and development after the event, but recent evidence suggests a small subset of children presenting with seizures and fever may have recurrent seizure or develop epilepsy. Diagnosis is solely clinical. But other causes of fever and seizure must be ruled out. Electroencephalogram, lumbar puncture and neuroimaging, all are to be used for specific indications but not routinely. Treatment consists of acute management and prophylaxis for further attack. This review will give an overview of the definition of febrile seizures, epidemiology, evaluation, treatment, outcomes and recent research.