A Study on the Etiology and Clinical Aspects of Febrile Seizures according to Their Types

Kim, Seung Soo; Kim, Dong Wook

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to be helpful in the diagnosis and management for children with febrile seizure among young patients who visited emergency department.
METHODS
Among 771 patients younger than 18 years(992 cases), who visited emergency department in Ilsan Paik hospital, due mainly to seizure, from December 1999 to January 2004, gender, age distribution, clinical types of seizure and the causes of seizure were examined and analyzed retrospectively, targeting 545 cases that had no experience of non-febrile seizure, central nervous system infection or other metabolic disorders, and that showed convulsion, accompanied by fever, of which cause was not identified by various tests.
RESULTS
The ratio of boys and girls was 1.74 : 1, and the age at the time of seizure was distributed from 3 months to 8 years and 3 months, and children under 4 accounted for the most with 431 cases(79%). Simple febrile seizure was 431 cases, which was four-fold larger than complex febrile seizure with 114 cases. There was no difference in the ratio of men and women in each category. The causes of febrile seizure were upper airway infection including acute pharyngotonsillitis(305 cases, 56%), pneumonia(23 cases, 4.2%), otitis media(23 cases, 4.2%) and acute gastroenteritis(21 cases, 3.9%). There was no significant difference between simple and complex febrile seizure groups. Significant difference was not shown between the above two groups in terms of past disease history and family disease history. Regarding seizure types, generalized tonic seizure was the highest at 39.6%, followed by generalized tonic-clonic seizure at 27.2%.
CONCLUSION
Although febrile seizure is known as a disease with a good prognosis, which does not leave any sequelae in most cases, some view it as a basic type of epilepsy caused by fever. However, larger size of research on the simple and complex febrile seizure is presumed to be required, since some patients are proceeded to epilepsy, afterwards.