Febrile seizures in children

Fever can cause many diseases. For example, long-term fever can cause brain lesions and convulsions. Especially for children, convulsions caused by fever are a very common symptom. However, many parents do not know much about convulsions caused by children's fever, and even feel particularly scared when talking about convulsions. So what are the characteristics of febrile convulsions in children at different stages?

The most common cause is hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy caused by intracranial hemorrhage due to birth trauma or labor asphyxia, followed by neonatal sepsis, purulent meningitis, neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, kernicterus, neonatal tetanus, neonatal tetany, hypomagnesemia, hyponatremia, hypoglycemia and other metabolic abnormalities. Common causes of illness within 1 to 3 days after birth are birth injury, asphyxia, intracranial hemorrhage, hypoglycemia, etc. Common causes of illness within 4 to 10 days after birth are hypocalcemia, kernicterus, hypomagnesemia, early sepsis and purulent meningitis, tetanus, and cranial malformations. At this age, congenital brain malformations and metabolic disorders should also be considered. If the mother has placenta previa, threatened abortion, excessive use of oxytocin, malposition of the fetus, umbilical cord prolapse, etc., it can cause hypoxic brain damage and lead to convulsions. Congenital rubella syndrome, toxoplasmosis, and cytomegalic inclusion disease should also be considered. In some individual cases, anesthetics given before delivery are transmitted to the fetus through the placenta, and the drug is discontinued after birth, which may cause convulsions. In a few cases the cause is unknown.

The most common causes are febrile convulsions, acute infections such as toxic bacillary dysentery, toxic encephalopathy caused by sepsis, purulent meningitis, and viral encephalitis. Congenital brain malformations and congenital metabolic disorders are often particularly prominent at this age, such as phenylketonuria and vitamin B6 dependence; some epilepsy syndromes such as infantile spasms and Ohtahara syndrome also occur during this period, generally accompanied by intellectual disability; in addition, there is also vitamin D deficiency tetany.

With the continuous improvement of the blood-brain barrier and systemic immune function, the incidence of various intracranial infectious diseases has dropped significantly compared to infancy. Infectious toxic encephalopathy, epilepsy and craniocerebral trauma caused by systemic infectious diseases (such as bacillary dysentery, lobar pneumonia, etc.) are relatively common in this stage. Less common ones include intracranial tumors, brain abscesses, intracranial hematomas, cerebral vascular embolism, hypertensive encephalopathy or uremia caused by kidney disease, hypoglycemia, diabetic ketonemia, food or drug poisoning, etc.