Abstract
Aim : This study aimed to evaluate the demographic and clinical characteristics of children who present to the emergency room with seizures and determine the etiology to appropriately treat these patients.
Methods : This hospital-based retrospective cohort study was conducted using data retrieved from the medical records of 1600 seizure cases treated at the Emergency and Pediatric Departments of Ina Central Hospital from January 2010 to December 2019.
Results : Of the 1600 cases, 1248 (78％) were associated with fever and 1228 (98.3％) were diagnosed with febrile seizures. Epilepsy was the most frequent cause of seizures without fever (75％). A total of 222 patients (17.3％) visited multiple times (maximum seven times). Complex febrile seizures increased the chances of being diagnosed with epilepsy later. Six cases (0.3％ of all visits) were diagnosed with acute encephalitis/encephalopathy ; however, there were no cases of meningitis. Body temperature at the visit was significantly lower, whereas age and previous occurrence of seizures were significantly higher in the epilepsy group with fever than in the febrile seizure group. In contrast, the recurrent seizure frequency during the same episode was significantly higher in the acute encephalitis/encephalopathy group than in the epilepsy group without fever.
Conclusion : Clinical characteristics and backgrounds such as age, body temperature, seizure history and recurrent episodes can be the important factors to predict the cause of seisures to ensure appropriate treatment of pediatric patients experiencing seizures in an emergency outpatient department.
