A retrospective cross sectional study on clinical profile of neonatal seizures in a tertiary care government hospital, Western India

Background: Convulsion during the first few weeks of life in a newborn is a frequent problem. Such disturbances may have many causes contributing to their etiology and have prognostic significance as well. Objective: This study aimed to determine the etiology, effect of gestational age, onset, types, and mortality of neonatal convulsions. We also aimed to evaluate the clinical parameters, computed tomography (CT) brain scan, neurosonogram, metabolic profile, and cerebrospinal fluid analysis as well as the response of antiepileptic drugs and outcome in these babies. Materials and Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was done at the neonatal intensive care unit of a tertiary care teaching hospital. The study group comprised 358 neonates with neonatal seizures (163 inborn and 195 referred) admitted over 2 years. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel and analyzed in SPSS version 12 (Chicago, Illinois, USA). Results: Out of 10,232 live births, 163 had seizures in the neonatal period, giving an incidence of 15.9/1000 live births. The most common type of seizure was tonic accounting for 33.2%. The most common etiology was perinatal asphyxia – 50.8%, followed by central nervous system infection – 20.1%. One hundred and twenty-six out of 358 patients expired contributing to mortality of 35.1%. All the newborns with perinatal asphyxia had seizures within the first 7 days. Conclusions: Improvement in antenatal and perinatal care with early identification of high-risk mothers will reduce the incidence of birth asphyxia and thereby of neonatal convulsions. Subtle seizures are most common and should not be missed. CT brain scan and neurosonogram are useful in the early detection of cerebral edema, ischemic hypodensities, and hemorrhage which contributes to prognostic significance.