Evaluation of clinical characteristics and long-term prognosis of children with febrile seizures

Objective and Aim: Febrile seizure (FS) is the most common type of seizure in children. They are seizures that occur due to fever without intracranial infection, often between the ages of 6 months to 5 years. FS is a health problem with a risk of recurrence and a rare possibility of turning into epilepsy. In this study, our aim is to determine the risk factors affecting the prognosis of patients who applied with the diagnosis of FS, including the 10 year follow-up. Materials And Methods: This is a retrospective study that includes clinical data, blood tests, neuroimaging and electroencephalogram (EEG) results were reviewed using the patients' medical records of patients with the first diagnosis of FS who applied to Ondokuz Mayıs University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Neurology between December 2008 and December 2009. Results: A total of 64 patients were included in the study. Of the patients, 29 (45.3%) were women and 35 (54.7%) were men. The mean age was 181.92±14.01 months, the mean age of the first FS was 20.59±13.08 months, and the mean age of the last FS was 42.68±31.27 months. The mean fever of the patients during the seizure was 38.8±08°C, and 89% of them were found to be ≥38°C. Upper respiratory tract infection was detected as the most common cause of fever in 76.6% (n=49) of the patients. The first seizures of the patients were simple FS (SFS) in 78% (n=50) and complex FS (CFS) in 22% (n=14). During the follow-up period, it was determined that 37.5% (n=24) of the patients had one seizure, 39.1% (n=25) had seizures in the range of 2-5, and 9.4% (n=6) had 10 or more seizures. In the follow-up of our cases, it was determined that epilepsy developed in 9.4% (n=6), 28.5% (n=4) in CFS and 4% (n=2) in SFS, which showed statistical significance (p=0.018). FS in the family was observed in 29v.7% and a history of epilepsy was observed in 9.4%. The most common concomitant comorbid condition was iron deficiency anemia with 20.3%. Conclusions: Although febrile seizure has a good prognosis, recurrence and development of epilepsy can be seen. In our study, consistent with the literature, we determined that the complexity of the first seizure type is an important risk factor for seizure recurrence and the development of epilepsy. We think that informing the family is important for the follow-up and treatment of patients. Key words: Febrile seizure, Complex febrile seizure, Epilepsy, Follow up