Seizures in Children under Five in a Pediatric Ward: Prevalence, Associated Factors and Outcomes

Abstract

Introduction: convulsion is a frequent cause of neurological and cognitive sequelae and then of epilepsy. The objective of this work was to describe the socio-demographic, clinical, therapeutic, and evolutionary aspects. Methodology: This was a descriptive retrospective study carried out in the general pediatrics department of CHU-Gabriel Touré. It took place over a period of 02 years from January 2017 to December 2018. We included all children aged 1 to 59 months hospitalized in the ward for convulsion. Results: During the study period, 2653 children aged 2 months to 59 months were hospitalized in the general pediatric ward. We included 288 medical records of children who presented with a seizure on admission. Convulsions represented 11% of pediatric hospitalizations from 1 month to 59 months. The average age was 29 months. Fever was present in 86% of patients. The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) test was positive in 38 patients. Hypoglycemia was present in 14 patients. Serum calcium was low in 3 patients. The most implicated etiologies were malaria 70%, meningitis 20%, and dehydration 13%. Management consisted of airway clearance, oxygen therapy as needed, and administration of diazepam (54%). Antibiotics were prescribed in 77% of cases and antimalarials in 70%. The average length of hospital stay was 8 days with extremes of 1 and 30 days. The outcome was favorable in 95% of cases. Sequelae were observed in 5% of cases and one case of death was observed. Conclusion: Acute convulsions are one of the most common causes of hospitalization in children under 5 years old. The causes were dominated by infectious diseases (malaria, meningitis). The appropriate course of action was the administration of diazepam rectally.