Major clinical risk factors for seizures in febrile children aged 6 to 60 months.

Abstract

Objectives: Febrile seizures (FS) are the most common type of seizures and typically transpire in children with ages from 6 to 60 months. This study was planned to find out major clinical risk factors for seizures in febrile children who were aged 6 to 60 months. A total of 100 febrile children aged 6 to 60. Study Design: Analytical Study. Setting: Department of Neurology, Children’s Hospital and the Institute of Child Health, Multan. Period: From 1^st April 2018 to 31^st December 2018. Material & Methods: Group A had 40 children with febrile seizures while group B had 60 febrile children but without seizures. Demographic features along with family history of (H/O) epilepsy as well as family history of febrile seizure, types of seizure and infection diseases were noted and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Odds ratio was calculated for various risk factors. Chi square test was applied and P value < 0.05 was considered as significant. Results: Out of a total of 100 children, there were 54 (54.0%) male and 46 (46.0%) female. There was no statistical difference in terms of gender between the two groups (p value = 0.566). Overall, mean age of the children was 26.02 months with standard deviation of 13.4 months. There were 28 (70.0%) children who reported with simple seizures while complex seizures were found in 12 (30.0%) cases. Statistically significant difference (p value = 0.001) was seen in terms of types of infections between the two study groups. When risk of seizures for various risk factors was calculated, family H/O FS, family H/O epilepsy, and upper RTI were as 14, 7 and 3 times respectively and turned out to be the major risk factors for seizures in febrile children. Conclusions: Family H/O FS, family H/O epilepsy and upper RTIs are the major risk factors related with seizures in febrile children. Measures to prevent these risk factors can decrease the burden of FS in our population.