This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages without signing in

Risk of developing epilepsy after febrile seizure (febrile convulsion)

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

risk of developing epilepsy after febrile seizure

Majority of children with febrile seizures do not develop epilepsy.

  • in an epidemiological study of 687 children who experienced an initial febrile seizure (simple and complex)
    • the risk of developing unprovoked seizure was increased fivefold when compared with children with no febrile seizures.
    • in children with simple febrile seizures the risk of developing epilepsy was 2.4% while in children with febrile seizures with a single complex feature the risk was 6-8% and those with two or three complex features, the risk was 17-22 % and 49%, respectively (1)

Several risk factors for future epilepsy after a febrile seizure have been described.

  • family history of epilepsy
  • complex febrile seizures
  • neurodevelopmental impairment e.g - cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus
  • short duration of fever (<1 hour) before the seizure (1,2)

Reference:


Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.