Developmental evaluation in children experiencing febrile convulsions

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of febrile convulsion (FC) on neuromotor development.

Data of 325 patients, who were followed up at our outpatient clinic and diagnosed with FC between January 2012 and December 2018, were retrospectively evaluated. Of these patients, 203 underwent the Denver Developmental Screening Test II (DDST II) and were included in the study as the patient group and 100 healthy children as the control group.

Of the study group, 84 (41.4%) were girls and 119 (58.6%) were boys (B/G: 1.4). Of all patients, 163 (80.3%) were diagnosed with simple FC, 22 (10.8%) with complicated FC, and 18 (8.9%) with FC+. There was no significant relationship found between FC subtypes and gender, family history of FC, family history of epilepsy, iron (Fe) deficiency, and Fe deficiency anemia. DDST II subtest points were significantly lower in all developmental areas in the patient group when compared to the controls (p < 0.001), while suspected and abnormal test results were higher in all developmental areas in the patient group compared to the controls (p=0.01). It was also determined that the language points were lower as the age of first seizure increased (r=- 0.319, p < 0.01).

Although FC is known to usually having a good prognosis, the low DDST II test results measured in this study indicated that the FC may pose a developmental risk and patients with FC should be followed up in terms of developmental features. Because of the retrospective nature of the study, there was no `preconvulsion` developmental evaluation. This is a major limitation of our study.