Infantile seizures: Infants are not just little children

Abstract

Seizure semiology in infants defies the typical characteristics and classification schemata that have been developed for older children and adults. A clear classification system is a necessary first step to facilitate proper diagnosis, choice of treatment, and determination of prognosis. This is an especially challenging task with seizures in infants. A semiologic system based upon simple descriptive terms has been proposed, which the neurologist and pediatrician will recognize as closer to clinical experience.

Seizure‐like events leading to hospital referrals in infants: A retrospective population‐based study

“…The difficulties in using clinical evaluation to differentiate between epileptic seizures and just non‐epileptic movements in infants have been acknowledged 13,14 . The less distinctive, and frequently more subtle, symptomatology in immature children increases the difficulties of describing paroxysmal symptoms in detail 5 . Our study's retrospective design, which used information from hospital medical records, may have increased the risk of inadequately describing events.…”

“…13,14 The less distinctive, and frequently more subtle, symptomatology in immature children increases the difficulties of describing paroxysmal symptoms in detail. 5 Our study's retrospective design, which used information epidemiological studies on paroxysmal events. 26,27 This indicates that classifying seizure-like events can be difficult.…”

“…The overlapping ictal symptomatology of NEPE and epileptic seizures, and the polymorphic features of infantile seizures that differ from those of older children and adults, 4‐6 makes the International League Against Epilepsy classification difficult to apply 2 . Therefore, we used the adjustments proposed by the League's Task Force on Neonatal Seizures 20 .…”

“…They are often thought to be epileptic in origin, but a wide spectrum of underlying mechanisms has been reported 1‐3 . The immature newborn brain is more vulnerable to developing seizures, and it has been shown that ictal symptoms differ in infants from older children and adults due to the immaturity of their central nervous system 4,5 . The clinical presentation can be similar in epileptic and non‐epileptic attacks and infants are unable to communicate symptoms like auras and other ictal and postictal manifestations 6‐8 …”

Etiological profile of afebrile seizures in infants in a tertiary care center from southern India

“…CT scan, however, was able to detect bleeds and HIE changes in a significant number of cases. Yield of imaging as per Hsieh et al [13] was around 35.2% by CT scan and 57% by MRI. Ahmed et al [14] found the yield of 62% with abnormal findings being cerebral atrophy in 73.3%, ventricular dilatation in 13.3%, encephalomalacia in 6.7%, and infarctions in 26.7%.…”