Clinico-etiological profile of children with first onset seizure admitted to pediatric emergency in a rural medical college of haryana

Background: Seizure is a common pediatric emergency. It bears significant morbidity and mortality. Objectives: To know the prevalence of first onset seizure and its clinico-etiological profile in age 1 month to 15 years Methods: This was a prospective cross-sectional study carried out in rural medical college over a period of 6 months Results : Thirty eight percent patients had first onset seizure among all seizure patients. Males to female ratio was 1.55:1. Eighty percent patients had generalized onset, 17.4% had focal onset and 2.1% had unknown onset seizure. Seizure prevalence decreased as age increased. 52.2% patients had status epilepticus. In infants, common causes were pyogenic meningitis (30.8%), hypocalcaemic seizure (23.1%), febrile seizure (23.1%), idiopathic seizure (15.4%) and infantile spasm (7.7%). Among 1-5 years age children, neurocysticercosis (32.1%), febrile seizure (21.4%), tuberculoma (10.7%) and thrombotic infarct (10.7%) were main causes. Conclusions: Among children admitted with first onset seizure, generalized onset was the commonest. presentation and neurocysticercosis was the major etiology.