Are there Differences or Similarities between Girls and Boys with Febrile Seizures?

Background: Febrile convulsions (FC) represent one of the main reasons for presenting at the emergency department.

Objectives: Main objective-to determine the incidence of febrile convulsions for the admitted children in the Childrens Clinic Hospital from Braşov, Romania.As second objectives-to analize possible correlations between gender distribution, clinical and epidemiological aspects, fever, lab exams and antibiotic prescription.

Methods: A retrospective, descriptive observational study between 1st of January 2016 and 31st of December 2018 was designed to include all childern admitted with FC at the Children’s Clinic Hospital Brasov.

Results: A total number of 122 children with FC were enrolled with no significant differences between gender distribution, 40% were the first born, boys being older compared with girls(28months Vs 23 months), FC being most prevalent in March.A positive family history for FC was identified in 14.7% and 60% were from rural areas, 28% of the children received antipyretics at home and 78% of them presented at the inaugural FC episode.Even though most of the FC are due to viral infections the trend in our patients was to prescribe antibiotics, 19% of the children received antibiotic although they had no positive laboratory tests for bacterial infection.

Medium time for the seizure was 150 seconds for boys and longer for girls, 180 seconds.The predominant manifestation of the febrile seizure was generalized tonic-clonic seizure for both girls and boys(63%), but girls presented more generalized hypotonia and boys presented more generalized hypertonia. 75% associated loss of consciousness with a predominace of girls(52% Vs 47%). Malnutrition was present in 30% of cases.Laboratory tests showed that more girls had a positive CRP(21%) comparative to boys(14%). Leucocitosis was presented in 34% of girls compared with 22% of boys.The most common underlying condition encountered was respiratory tract infections for both boys and girls(36% /43%).

Conclusions: 1.There were no significant differences between the two studied groups with FC regarding the gender distribution, clinical manifestation, laboratory findings and epidemiological aspects.

2.URTI and LRTI were the most common underlying conditions causing the febrile seizures.

3.Protein-caloric malnutrition was a common risk factor.

4.The administration of antibiotics is high although there is no evident bacterial cause.