ABSTRACT

Febrile convulsion (FC) is defined as a seizure triggered by fever in children between 6 months and 5 years of age without an underlying central nervous system infection. In this study, we aimed to evaluate clinical fea-tures including demographics, laboratory findings, and causes of fever with FC duration among inpatients diagnosed and treated for FC.

A total of 238 patients with the diagnosis of FC between May 2009 and May 2012 were included in the study. Demographic, clinical, and labora-tory data of the patients were analyzed

One hundred and thirty nine patients (58.5%) were male and 99 (41.5%) were female, with a male/female ratio of 1.4. Mean age of the patients admitted with a first FC was 2.2 ± 1.1 years. The mean temperature of the patients measured rectally during the seizure was 38.7 ± 0.5 ºC. Fe-brile convulsion was diagnosed as simple type in 198 (83.2%) and complex type in 40 (16.8%) of the patients. Thirty three (13.8%) patients developed a second seizure within 24 hours. Median convulsion duration was 2 (1-5) minutes. The most frequent fever etiology was upper respiratory tract infec-tion in 131 (55%) cases

This study demonstrated that benign conditions, such as upper respiratory tract infections, were common causes of FC. A conservative approach should be more appropriate in these cases