Neonatal epileptic seizures and neonatal epileptic syndromes

Abstract

Neonatal epileptic seizures occur from birth to the end of the neonatal period.1–9 This is the most vulnerable of all the other periods of life for the development of epileptic seizures, particularly in the first 1 or 2 days from birth. Neonatal seizures differ from those of older children and adults. They may be short-lived events lasting for just a few days, but they often signify serious malfunction or damage of the immature brain, and constitute a neurological emergency that demands urgent diagnosis and management. Most neonatal seizures are acute (provoked, occasional, reactive) symptomatic seizures caused by an acute illness such as hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy, stroke or infection. Seizures are the most common and important sign of acute neonatal encephalopathy; they are a major risk for death or subsequent neurological disability and, by themselves, may contribute to an adverse neurodevelopmental outcome.