A prospective study of epilepsy following neonatal convulsions.
In a prospective study of 130 infants with neonatal convulsions, the frequency and type of epilepsy and the relationship between the presumptive etiology of neonatal convulsions and subsequent epilepsy were investigated in 82 survivors exclouding those dying and lost to follow-up. Of these 82 children, 15 (18.2%) were found to have epilepsy, which was of generalized type in seven (8.5%), infantile spasm in four (4.9%), focal seizures in three (3.6%) and myoclonic seizures in one (1.2%). Febrile convulf neonatal convulsions were asphyxia, intracranial hemorrhage or neonatal meningitides in most instances, but no particular relationship was noted between the presumptive etiology of neonatal convulsions and the type of subsequent epilepsy. In 11 (73.3%) of the 15 epileptic children, convurrent mental retardation, cerebral palsy and postmeningitic hydrocephalus were noted. Evidence from RI cisternography, pneumoencephalography and cerebral angiography indicated that perinatal or neonatal brain damage responsible for epilepsy might be organic in nature. The fact that epilepsy occurred later in many of cases of neonatal convulsions of unidentified etiology suggests that brain damage incurred during fetal life might also be implicated at least in some instances. The onset of epilepsy in this series was relatively early, invariably before three years of age.
D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007232:Infant, Newborn, Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D012640:Seizures / Q000150:complications* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D013997:Time Factors