Utility of Lumbar Puncture in the first episode of Simple Febrile Seizure in Children between 6 to 18 months of age

Febrile seizures are the most common seizures occurring in children and areexclusive to childhood. It is the most common pediatric emergency and the most common type ofseizure every pediatrician is dealing with. It accounts for 2.5% of all seizures in children. Despiteprogress in the understanding of febrile seizure and development of consensus statement aboutdiagnostic evaluation and management there exists a diversity of opinion regarding bloodinvestigations, neuro-imaging, Electro Encephalogram (EEG) and the need for routine lumbarpunctures (LP)during a febrile seizure. Aim & objectives: To determine the utility of lumbarpuncture in identifying the group of children aged 6 to18 months having the first episode of feverwith seizures that would benefit from the procedure. Observation: Most common cause of fever infebrile seizures was found to be upper respiratory tract infection (38%) in children followed byAGE(15%). Family history was present in 12.77% of cases of SFS. The most common symptom iscough and cold apart from fever and seizure saw in children. Most common clinical sign wastransient lethargy lasting less than <15 minutes seen in 18% of cases. In 11.7% of cases of SFS adiagnosis of meningitis was made at the time of admission. Out of these only 1 case (2.4%) wassuggestive of meningitis in the age group of 6 to 12 months. Conclusion: Lumbar puncture isnecessary to rule out meningitis in all children between the ages of 6 months to 12 monthspresenting with the first episode of fever with seizure to rule out meningitis.