Epidemiological and clinical features of hospitalized patients with febrile seizures in Ramadi, West of Iraq

Abstract

Prospective study of 169 children with febrile seizures (FS) was carried out from 1st February 2002 to 30th of January 2003. The proportion of patients with FS among all admitted patients was 7.6%. The mean age of patients with FS was 25.8 months, and the peak age of our patients was 18.19 months. Male to female ratio was 1.3:1. The mean age of the 1st attacks was 23.5 months, and that for recurrent attacks was 29.8 months. The mean temperature for the 1st attack was 39.7.C and that for recurrent attacks was 38.2.C. There was a history of prematurely in 13%, a family history of FS in 35% and epilepsy in 17%. Complex FS were seen in 27% and febrile status epilepticus in 3%. Upper and lower respiratory tract infection was the cause of fever in 67% of patients and the majority of them were admitted in the cold months of year. Lumbar puncture was done in 37% of patients. The commonest anticonvulsant used to terminate the seizures was intravenous diazepam in 78.7% followed by rectal diazepam in 8.9%. Intermittent diazepam (45%) was the most widely used anticonvulsant for prophylaxis, followed by phenobarbital (23%).