Electroencephalography in children with simple, complex, and recurrent febrile seizures

Febrile seizures (FS) occur in 5% of children with 6 to 60 months ages. Many investigations are being performed, one of them is EEG. This study was done to determine EEG in recurrent simple and complex febrile seizures. In this descriptive, cross sectional study, we evaluated 86 patients with recurrent and complex febrile seizure admitted to neurology ward in Ali-Asghar training children hospital between 2008 and 2012. Data were recorded on age, gender, type of seizure (focal, generalized), and family history of febrile seizure, epilepsy, and EEG results. Eighty six patients had EEG. Mean (SD) age was 24.27±15.28 months. Forty three (50%) cases were 6-18 month of age. Fifty three (62%) cases were male. Thirty three (38.5%) patients had recurrent simple FS and 53 (61.5%) had complex FS. Twenty nine (37.7%) cases had family history of FS and 13(15%) cases had family history of epilepsy. Thirty six percent of cases had abnormal EEGs. Abnormal finding included slow waves (14%), sharp waves (16%) and spike waves (6%). There was significant relation between abnormal EEGs and age (p=0.04), though no meaningful relation with gender, type of seizures and family history of FS or epilepsy. Seizures during a febrile illness are common in children under 5 years of age. Due to changes in EEG in children with simple, complex, and recurrent FS, performing EEG in these cases is recommended.