Series of patients with febrile status epilepticus: clinical manifestations and long-term follow-up

Background. The conception of febrile status epilepticus includes many syndromes with seizures of different etiologies (fever, infection, autoimmune processes, etc.). Generally developing seizures have a severe course and are difficult to treat.

Objective: to classify patients with febrile status epilepticus and study their long-term prognosis.

Materials and methods. The study included 10 patients (children and adolescents), hospitalized in the intensive care unit, whose epileptic status were associated with a fever.

Results. In the analysis of the patients, who were included in the study, 4 subgroups can be distinguished: 1) a short-term period of convulsion against the background of metabolic decompensation caused by a main disease (with a conditionally favorable prognosis for seizures); 2) seizures as a manifestation of organic brain damage or infectious diseases with a serious prognosis of neurological development and seizures; 3) the onset of seizures against the background of fever (absence of any other causes of seizures); the prognosis of getting rid of seizures is variable, long follow-up monitoring is necessary, probably for many years; 4) true febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome (in our study 1 patient had its classical form, and 1 patient had its less typical form (the onset of the disease at 18 years old – not at school age)).

Conclusions. Obtained data illustrate the whole severity of febrile status epilepticus in children, according to follow-up observation, seizures persisted in at least 3 out of 10 patients (2 of them with febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome), at least three patients had a serious infectious or organic brain pathology.