Febrile Seizures
Febrile Seizures: What Every Parent Should Know
By Herbert Macomber
1. What is a febrile seizure?
Febrile convulsions (FC) or seizures (FS) are clonic or tonic-clonic seizures that most often occur in infancy or childhood, mainly occurring between four months and six years of age, with fever but without evidence of intracranial infection, antecedent epilepsy, or other definable cause. That is why they are often referred to as "fever seizures" or "febrile seizures." Most of the time when children have a seizure, or a convulsion, it 's caused by fevers with a rectal temperature greater than 102 degrees F. Most febrile seizures occur during the first day of a child 's fever. They occur in 1-5% of all children, and therefore febrile convulsions have the highest incidence of any childhood neurological disease. They are very frightening, but they are not as dangerous as they may appear. Nearly 80 percent of parents think that their child undergoing a seizure is dying or already dead. The controversy that the best management is parental support and education has not been substantiated. Rather, recent findings show that the parents of an affected child continue to be anxious, even after speaking with physicians, viewing videotapes, and reading educational materials, and there is often still family disruption. Parents and many physicians are sometimes driven to try to prevent seizures because of unfounded fears. Seizures do not beget seizures, and in humans there is no solid evidence of "kindling," which is seen in an experimental model in animals. The majority of children with febrile seizures have.
There have been families identified where each had multiple members affected by febrile convulsions over two or more generations. In order to identify the gene(s) for FC/FS a study was initiated by a genome screen with a panel of micro satellite markers spaced at 20 cM. Blood samples are collecting from families in which 2 siblings have had febrile seizures. Blood
By Herbert Macomber
1. What is a febrile seizure?
Febrile convulsions (FC) or seizures (FS) are clonic or tonic-clonic seizures that most often occur in infancy or childhood, mainly occurring between four months and six years of age, with fever but without evidence of intracranial infection, antecedent epilepsy, or other definable cause. That is why they are often referred to as "fever seizures" or "febrile seizures." Most of the time when children have a seizure, or a convulsion, it 's caused by fevers with a rectal temperature greater than 102 degrees F. Most febrile seizures occur during the first day of a child 's fever. They occur in 1-5% of all children, and therefore febrile convulsions have the highest incidence of any childhood neurological disease. They are very frightening, but they are not as dangerous as they may appear. Nearly 80 percent of parents think that their child undergoing a seizure is dying or already dead. The controversy that the best management is parental support and education has not been substantiated. Rather, recent findings show that the parents of an affected child continue to be anxious, even after speaking with physicians, viewing videotapes, and reading educational materials, and there is often still family disruption. Parents and many physicians are sometimes driven to try to prevent seizures because of unfounded fears. Seizures do not beget seizures, and in humans there is no solid evidence of "kindling," which is seen in an experimental model in animals. The majority of children with febrile seizures have.
There have been families identified where each had multiple members affected by febrile convulsions over two or more generations. In order to identify the gene(s) for FC/FS a study was initiated by a genome screen with a panel of micro satellite markers spaced at 20 cM. Blood samples are collecting from families in which 2 siblings have had febrile seizures. Blood
References: & Dennis E. Bulman B.Sc. (University of Western Ontario Scientist, Ottawa General Hospital Research Institute), M.Sc. (University of Western Ontario), and Ph.D. (University of Toronto) Assistant Professor, Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology, University of Ottawa, http://www.ogh.on.ca/research/bulman.htm (06/23/1998) & Rosman NP, Colton T, Labazzo J, et al. A controlled trial of diazepam administered during febrile illnesses to prevent recurrence of febrile seizures. The New England Journal of Medicine 1993; 329:79-84. & N. Paul Rosman, Theodore Colton, Jan Labazzo, Paula L. Gilbert, Nancy B. Gardella, Edward M. Kaye, Carla Van Bennekom, Michael R. Winter Gaining a Perspective on Childhood Seizures A Controlled Trial of Diazepam Administered during Febrile Illnesses to Prevent Recurrence of Febrile Seizures. The New England Journal of Medicine 1998; 338:79-84. & Freeman JM. The best medicine for febrile seizures. The New England Journal of Medicine 1992; 327:1161-3. & Berg AT, Shinnar S, Hauser WA, et al. A prospective study of recurrent febrile seizures. The New England Journal of Medicine 1992; 327:1122-7. & Michael J. Painter, Mark S. Scher, Aryeh D. Stein, Stacey Armatti, Zhiming Wang, Joseph C. Gardiner, Nigel Paneth, Beth Minnigh, John Alvin Phenobarbital Compared with Phenytoin for the Treatment of Neonatal Seizures. The New England Journal of Medicine 1999; 341:485-9.)