Investigation of the etiology and prognosis of neonatal convulsions

Neonatal convulsions are one of the important symptoms of many diseases, especially diseases involving the central nervous system. Conditions such as the risk of mortality caused by neonatal seizures and neuromotor developmental retardation that may develop in the long term have led to intensification of studies in this field. In this study, patients who were hospitalized in the intensive care unit of Mersin University Faculty of Medicine Hospital, Department of Pediatrics, Neonatal Department between 01.01.2008 and 16.09.2020 and had a history of convulsions during hospitalization were screened, and their etiological factors and prognoses were evaluated. Birth information (birth weight, gestational week, mode of delivery, APGAR score, need for resuscitation), characteristics (seizure time and type, cerebral imaging, EEG findings, treatments) and etiological factors of newborns during hospitalization in the neonatal intensive care unit were evaluated. The etiologic factor was hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy in 38% of our patients, and it was found to be the most common cause. While the cause was intracranial bleeding in 15% of the patients, the etiologic cause could not be determined in 19.2% of the patients. In the follow-ups, 13.6% of the patients resulted in death. Epilepsy development rate was 42%, CP development rate was 32.9%, visual impairment was 27%, hearing impairment was 13.4% and microcephaly was 10.5%. Abnormal development was detected in 83.3% of the patients who underwent Denver-II Developmental Test. In our study, the proportional distribution of etiological causes, the effect of risk factors, the development of epilepsy and CP were found to be compatible with the literature. Developmental test abnormality was found at a higher rate than the literature. This result was associated with the low number of patients who could undergo developmental testing and the fact that patients with normal development did not follow up regularly.