Abstracts

Rationale: Febrile seizure is the most common convulsive event in children. The study for febrile seizure has not been investigated on Jeju Island, South Korea. The goal of this study was to assess the clinical and demographic characteristics of children with febrile seizure on Jeju Island, South Korea. This was the first study for febrile seizure on Jeju island. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed patients aged 7-120 months who were admitted with febrile seizure (FS) to our pediatric department at Jeju National University Hospital between March 2007 and May 2012. Cases were identified using a computerized text search, followed by a manual chart review. We excluded patients who had evidence of intracranial infection or previous nonfebrile seizures. The variables collected included age, sex, seizure characteristics, seizure duration, recurrence within 24 hours, onset of first FS, recurrent FS after 5 years of age, family history of FS (first-degree relatives), family history of epilepsy, electroencephalographic findings, brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and subsequent nonfebrile seizures. Results: One hundred forty-three patients (94 boys and 49 girls) were enrolled in the study. The mean age at the time of the study was 48 months. The average age at the first FS was 26 months. The average total number of FS was 3.5. Family histories of FS and epilepsy were found in 42 (29.4%) and 11 patients (7.7%), respectively. Subsequent nonfebrile seizures were observed in 24 (16.8%) of the children, and 46 (32.2%) were diagnosed with complex FS. None of the parameters examined differed significantly between the children with and without complex FS. Forty-six (32.2%) of the children had their first FS before 1 year of age; of these, 20 showed complex FS (p = 0.046). FS continued after 5 years of age in 27 (18.9%) of the children, 9 of whom showed subsequent nonfebrile seizures (p = 0.019). We compared patients who suffered FS more than twice with patients who experienced 1 or 2 episodes. Seventy (48.9%) of the 143 children experienced more than 2 episodes of FS, whereas the remaining children experienced 1 or 2 episodes of FS. Among these 70 patients, 29 (41.4%) had a family history of FS (p = 0.002). Thirty of the 70 children who experienced more than 2 recurrent episodes of FS suffered their first FS before 1 year of age, whereas a smaller proportion of the children who had fewer than 3 episodes of FS had their first FS at this age (p = 0.007). Conclusions: Children who developed FS before 1 year of age had a tendency to experience complex FS and more than two episodes of FS. Patients whose FS persisted beyond 5 years of age tended to experience subsequent nonfebrile seizures, compared with patients whose FS did not persist beyond 5 years of age. Complex FS did not influence the risk of subsequent afebrile seizures. The recurrence rate for FS was significantly higher in children with a family history of FS.