Effect of acetaminophen and of low intermittent doses of diazepam on prevention of recurrences of febrile seizures☆,☆☆,★,★★
Section snippets
METHODS
The parents of all children seeking medical help from the University of Oulu Department of Pediatrics for their first febrile seizures between November 1986 and September 1990 were offered the possibility of participating in a 2-year follow-up study. The parents of all but three patients expressed willingness to participate; in addition to these unwilling parents, only those patients known to be unable to attend the follow-up visit at the end of the 2-year period were excluded. All children
RESULTS
Altogether 153 children of the total of 180 (85.0%) had at least one febrile event during the follow-up, and the total number of such events during that period was 641. Of the 180 children, 38 (21.1%) had a total of 55 recurrences of febrile seizures; 27 had one such recurrence, and one child had as many as five (Table I). Thirty-two of the children (17.8%) had seizures during the first year of the follow-up, and 15 (9.8%) of the 153 children had a seizure during their first febrile event. The
DISCUSSION
Both acetaminophen as an antipyretic agent and the prophylactic use of diazepam appeared to be ineffective in preventing recurrences of febrile seizures. Even though such seizures are associated with the degree of fever, surprisingly few surveys have analyzed the importance of the temperature for their occurrence. Even high doses of antipyretics have been shown to be ineffective for preventing a new rise in temperature among children hospitalized for febrile convulsions8; during the first day
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Cited by (0)
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From the Department of Pediatrics, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
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Supported by the Alma and K.A. Snellman Foundation, Finland.
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Reprint requests: M. Uari, MD, PhD, MSc, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, University of Oulu, FIN-90220 Oulu, Finland.
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0022-3476/95/$3.00 + 0 9/25/63860