Objective:

To describe the diagnostic studies and the most probable causes of seizures in children seen in an emergency department of a private hospital.

Material and methods:

From August 2013 to July 2015, we analyzed the care provided for pediatric emergencies motivated by convulsive crisis (as initial or recurrent manifestation). For the analysis, patients were grouped by age, and considering whether or not it was the first event.

Results:

164 children were analyzed; 65% (108/164) was in infants, 6% (10/164) in preschool children and 28% (46/164) in school children/adolescents. Among infants and toddlers febrile seizures predominated (41.2%). In schoolchildren and adolescents, the most frequent recurrent seizures were due to epilepsy (62.1%). The most studied patients were the non-febrile seizures that were presented for the first time: 96.5% with neuroimaging and 86.2% with electroencephalogram (EEG). In recurrent seizures, the EEG was performed in 41.5% and in 4.6% through neuroimaging studies.

Conclusions:

In the present study, seizures of first presentation predominated. For infants and preschoolers these were febrile seizures, while for schoolchildren and adolescents it was due to epilepsy, both in the initial stage or as recurrent seizures.

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