Evaluation of Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of First Febrile Seizures in Children

Febrile seizure is the most common problem in pediatric neurology that occur s in 3– 4% of children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate demographic and clinical characteristics of first febrile seizures in children admitted to the hospital. In a descriptive retrospective study, medical records of children with first febrile seizure, admitted between March 2004and August 2005 toYazd Shaheed Sadoughi Hospital were evaluated for demographic and clinical characteristics of first febrile seizures. 76 boys and 63 girls with mean age of 2.03 ± 1.21 years were evaluated. Febrile seizure type was complex in 33% and simple in 67 %. On the whole, 66 % occurred in less than two year olds and 6 % in more than four year olds. The most common form of seizure was generalized tonic colonic (79cases) and URI was the most prevalent etiology of fever. Mean temperature on admission was 38.5o C. Mean seizure time and hospital stay (days) was 6.7 minutes and 2.3 days, both of which were statistically more significant in complex febrile seizure. There were a significant number of complex febrile seizures in this study that necessitates more aggressive handling. As antipyretic use is ineffective in prevention of febrile seizures, undue stress on parents can be avoided by not emphasizing on antipyretic consumption.