Assessment of the neurological and somatic status of children with neonatal seizures

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to assess the neurological and somatic status of newborns with seizures. A retrospective study of 512 newborns of different gestational age with seizures was carried out taking into account clinical and etiological, laboratory and paraclinical data. The main etiological factors leading to the development of symptomatic seizures in newborns are hypoxic-ischemic, hypoxic-hemorrhagic, infectious lesions of the central nervous system. In full-term newborns with seizures, the orienting diagnosis is hypoxic-ischemic damage of the central nervous system. At the same time, in premature infants, the leading cause of seizures was intracranial hemorrhage and intrauterine infection. Analysis of EEG examination showed a high frequency of the polymorphic type of neonatal seizures. In general, convulsive conditions appeared in the first days of life, which reflected severe cerebral disorders. As a result of the research, detected that neonatal seizures of newborns against a background of damage of the central nervous system are characterized the involvement of several body systems, mainly with damage to the lungs, heart and gastrointestinal tract. Multiple organ dysfunctions with damage to 3 or more organs were observed in 143 (27.9 ± 2.0%) newborns with seizures and depending on gestational age, mostly in premature infants. Thus, neonatal seizures are differed by a variety of etiological factors, clinical forms, diagnostic complexity, and are a serious risk factor for impaired psychomotor development of the infants, the formation of postneonatal epilepsy and cerebral palsy.