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Updated: Jul 17, 2026

How to Obtain Reliable Visual Event-related Potentials in Newborns
07:39

How to Obtain Reliable Visual Event-related Potentials in Newborns

Published on: October 24, 2019

Neonatal seizures: eyes open or closed?

Florian Bauder1, Gabriele Wohlrab, Bernhard Schmitt

  • 1University Children's Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland.

Epilepsia
|February 14, 2007
PubMed

Insights

Persistent eye closure during a suspected seizure event in newborns suggests it is unlikely to be an electroclinical seizure. This finding is consistent with observations in infants, highlighting a potential diagnostic indicator.

Area of Science:

  • Neonatal neurology
  • Pediatric epilepsy
  • Clinical neurophysiology

Background:

  • Persistent eye closure during paroxysmal events is known to make seizures unlikely in infants.
  • This observation has clinical implications for differentiating seizure activity from other events.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether persistent eye closure during paroxysmal events is also indicative of unlikely seizures in neonates.
  • To evaluate the diagnostic utility of eye status during suspected seizures in newborns.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective review and classification of archived neonatal seizures from a video database.
  • Inclusion criteria: electroclinical seizures only (excluding electrographic or non-EEG-correlated clinical seizures).
  • Assessment of eye status (open or closed) during 131 electroclinical seizures in 46 neonates.

Main Results:

  • Eyes were open in 115 (88%) of assessed seizures.
  • Eyes were persistently closed in 10 seizures (8%).
  • All 10 seizures with persistent eye closure were identified as clonic seizures.

Conclusions:

  • Persistent eye closure during a suspected seizure event in a neonate makes an electroclinical seizure unlikely.
  • The findings support the hypothesis that eye status can aid in the diagnosis of neonatal seizures.
  • Further research may refine the use of eye closure as a clinical sign in neonatal neurology.
Abstract

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