Evaluation of demographical, clinical characteristics and epilepsy development of patients over five years of age applying to the hospital with febrile convulsion complaint

Febrile convulsion (FC) is the most common benign convulsion triggered with fever and seen in children between 6 months - 5 years of age. Frequency is reported as 2-6%. Despite this age-dependent definition, febrile convulsion may be observed in almost any age. In some children febrile seizures occur after 5 years of age. The prognosis for these children is less clear and there are some conflicted data about this disorder. Some studies showing that the ratio of following epilepsies in children in with febrile convulsions after five years of age is higher than children having febrile convulsions. The aim of this study is to analyze demographical, clinical, laboratory and radiological characteristics of patients over five years of age with febrile convulsion, their predisposing factors and the effect of these characters on prognosis. A total of 64 children over 5 years of age applying to Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine Pediatric Neurology Polyclinic and Pediatric Emergency Service between 15/02/2012 - 15/04/2014 with febrile convulsion complaint were included in the study. Those who had febrile convulsion under five years of age and whose complaint continued after that age were gathered under Group 1 and those who had their first febrile convulsions over five years of age were gathered under Group 2. Patients, who had afebrile seizures before, have progressive Central Nervous System disease and psychiatrical problems were not included in the study. Laboratory, lumbar puncture data, imaging (Magnetic resonance or computer tomography), Electroencephalography, WISC-R development test results of the patients were also evaluated. The most common focus of fever was determined as upper respiratory infection in 10 patients (43.4%) in Group 1 and 21 patients (51.2%) in Group 2. In both groups, it was observed that the seizures were mostly generalized tonic-clonic. Seizures of 21 patients (91.3%) in Group 1 and 29 patients (70.7%) in Group 2 were Simple febrile convulsion. During the patient follow-up period between 1 - 3.5 years, afebril seizure development was observed in 5 (21.7%) patients in Group 1 and in 7 patients (17%) in Group 2. It was observed that antiepileptic treatment was started in 9 patients out of the 23 patients in Group 1 (39.1%) and 10 patients out of the 41 patients with first FC story over 5 years of age (24.4%). As a result, we considered that close follow-up is important in FCs which are generally benign, as seizures tend to recur and have the risk of turning into epilepsy. Especially in children having FC over five years of age, a significantly high epilepsy development risk was determined compared to those having FC under five years of age. It may be considered that these children should be considered as the group of patients with a probably developing epilepsy risk. In order to determine epilepsy development risk more accurately in these patients, larger epidemiological studies and longer follow-up are necessary. Key words: Fever, febrile convulsion, epilepsy development, late febrile seizures.