Clinical manifestations of febrile convulsion
According to the medical information network, febrile convulsion mostly occurs in children aged 6 months to 5 years. It is a convulsion attack in a heat stroke (body temperature ≥ 38 ℃). Central nervous system infection and other causes of convulsion are excluded. There has been no history of febrile convulsion in the past. It is the most common convulsive disease in infants and young children, with a prevalence of about 3% - 5%. It often occurs in the stage of sudden rise of body temperature and occurs within 24 hours of fever.
The typical manifestations of convulsions are sudden loss of consciousness, eyes turning up or staring, closed teeth, foaming at the mouth, cyanosis around the mouth, muscle tonic clonus, incontinence of urine and urine, etc. after the attack, they are depressed and sleepy.
It should be noted that most children are simple febrile convulsions. Generally, there is only one attack of a fever course, and the duration is less than 15 minutes, most of which are within 5 minutes; Complex febrile convulsions, mostly < 6 months or > 5 years old, with a long duration (> 15 minutes) or ≥ 2 episodes in one heat course, may be accompanied by nervous system abnormalities. Convulsion duration refers to the duration of seizures lasting more than 30 minutes or repeated seizures, and the consciousness between seizures has not recovered for more than 30 minutes.
Factors causing febrile convulsion
The common causes of febrile convulsion include upper respiratory tract infection, otitis media, pneumonia, acute gastroenteritis, eruptive diseases, urinary tract infection and so on.
Seizures are related to age. Generally speaking, it is because children's nervous system development is not fully mature, there may be obstacles in coping with high fever, seizures may occur due to abnormal discharge of brain cells, and there is a clear genetic susceptibility. Therefore, children under the age of 5 and first-degree relatives with a history of febrile seizures are more likely to have convulsions during fever.
These procedures are not advisable during febrile seizures
Medical information network found that when children have convulsions, parents are often at a loss. In fact, they don't need to pry open their teeth with hard objects such as spoons and chopsticks (it's easy to damage their teeth), and they don't need to put towels and fingers into their children's mouth (they rarely bite their tongue when they attack, but it's easy to block their respiratory tract). They don't need to press, shake or hold their children tightly (prone to hypoxia), needn't prick people with needles (prone to secondary infection), and there is no evidence that pressing can shorten the attack time in people.
Parents should not stop febrile convulsion artificially, because convulsion often stops by itself. The most important thing is to prevent accidental injury caused by the attack. Put the child on a flat and non injury prone ground or bed, untie his collar, keep his head tilted to one side, clean the secretion of mouth and nose, avoid aspiration of saliva and vomit, and try to record the time. Generally, it can be relieved by itself in 3-5 minutes , after the convulsion is relieved, take the child to the hospital to find out the cause of fever. If the attack lasts for more than 5 minutes, you need to see a doctor nearby or call 120 for help.
Febrile convulsion attack, will it recur in the future?
The recurrence was related to age. The recurrence rate was 50% when the first age was less than 1 year old, and 30% when the first age was 1 year old or over. The risk factors for recurrence included: ① low starting age; ② short fever time (< 1H); ③ family history of febrile convulsion; ④ body temperature < 38 ℃.
Can febrile convulsion damage the brain?
Most parents feel that "children are afraid of convulsions when they have a fever, and they are afraid of brain damage when they convulse" In fact, although the convulsion attack looks terrible, more than 90% of the seizures can be relieved within 5 minutes. Usually, it will not cause damage to the child's brain and affect his intelligence and development. The real danger is the accidental injury caused by the attack, such as falling down during convulsion, vomiting, teeth falling off when prying his mouth, hard objects accidentally bitten into his mouth, and biting his fingers Asphyxia caused by accidental inhalation of blood into respiratory tract.
How to prevent febrile convulsion?
For simple febrile convulsion, preventive medication is not recommended. The best preventive means is to strengthen nursing and avoid frequent fever. When the child is older and the nervous system is mature, it will get better. Generally, febrile convulsion rarely occurs in children over the age of 7. When fever is inevitable, the appropriate application of antipyretic drugs can alleviate the child's discomfort, but antipyretic drugs can not inhibit the body's health Heat production process, so taking antipyretics in advance when there is low fever can not prevent the rise of body temperature and prevent seizures.
Children with a history of complex convulsions and status epilepticus need to take antiepileptic drugs under the guidance of pediatric neurophysicians.
