LUMBAR PUNCTURE IN PATIENTS WITH FEBRILE CONVULSION

Meningitis in infants and children is an infectious disorder which has high mortality and morbidity. The disease present with different clinical manifestations and it may be present without signs of meningeal irritation, particularly in young infants. In this group, CNS infection may be present only with fever and seizure.
On the other hand, one of the most. common and benign neurologic disorders during infancy and childhood is febrile convulsion which is not associated with any underlying disorder in CNS. Differential diagnosis between these two problems is difficult.
Whether LP is indicated to rule out meningitis in infants with febrile convulsion is not clear. In a one year prospective study, CSF of children that presented with febrile convulsion with or without signs of meningitis, were examined.
From 285 patients in whom LP was performed, 96(33.7%) of the cases had meningitis and 189(66.3 %) had normal CSF analysis.
61 cases (63.5%) were male and 35 cases(36.4%) were female, showing male predominance. In this study, from total patients, 124 children (43. 9%) presented only with fever and seizure, 18 cases (14.5%) of these patients had abnormal CSF.