Seizures in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: A Prospective Study

Hospital-Onset Seizures in Children Aged 3 Months to 12 Years: A Prospective Cohort Study

OBJECTIVE

To describe the clinical profile, etiology and outcome of children with hospital-onset seizures (HOS) in a tertiary care public hospital.

METHODS

In this prospective study, consecutive children aged 3 months to 12 years admitted for at least 24 hours in the Department of Pediatrics of a tertiary care public hospital between 1 February, 2021 and 15 September, 2021, were followed-up during hospital stay till death/discharge. Any child admitted within 7 days following head trauma, or admitted for seizure control during the current illness was excluded. All patients were followed up daily for the occurrence of seizures during hospital stay. Outcomes were assessed using Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS).

RESULTS

Out of the 1050 children (635 boys), 25 (2.38%) children with a median (IQR) age of 12 (4,60) months developed seizures during the hospital stay. Seizures occurred at a median (IQR) interval of 21 hour (8 hour, 5 days) from admission; seizures progressed to status epilepticus in 3 (12%) children. Majority of those with seizures had an underlying neurological disorder/disease at admission. Majority of patients (68%) had generalized tonic-clonic seizures. After neuro-infections, metabolic derangements were the second most common etiological group for HOS (32%). A poor outcome, defined as death/severe disability as per GOS, was seen in 8 (32%) children with HOS. Children with HOS had a 2.76 times higher risk of a poor outcome as compared to those with no seizures during the hospital stay [RR (95% CI) 2.76 (1.07, 7.11), P = 0.035].

CONCLUSION

Physicians need to be aware of the risk factors for HOS in children so as to provide adequate monitoring and emergent treatment.

Magnitude and Determinant Factors of Pediatrics Seizures in Pediatrics Emergency Unit at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2020: A Retrospective and Descriptive Study

Background

One of the most prevalent medical problems affecting kids is epilepsy, which is the most prevalent chronic neurological condition in kids in both developed and developing nations. The spectrum of diseases that make up childhood epilepsy syndromes ranges from mild to potentially fatal. Children may experience seizures due to a variety of illnesses, such as infection, severe brain injury, and anatomical deformity. It is the foremost visit calculates in neurological and cognitive impedance in children in low-income countries as well as the foremost common reason for pediatric clinic confirmations in children from destitute countries. All things considered, constrained things have been conducted in Ethiopia. Hence, this ponder points to survey the size and related variables of pediatric seizures among children conceded to Tikur Anbessa pediatric emergency.

Methods

By looking through 256 patient charts, an institution-based retrospective cross-sectional analysis was done. Data collection utilized a systematic checklist that had been evaluated beforehand. The EpiData version 4.4.2.2 was used to enter the data, which was then exported for analysis to the SPSS version 25. Binary logistic regression and descriptive statistics were employed. Variables from the bivariate analysis that had a p-value of less than 0.25 were carried over to multivariate analysis. The strength and existence of the link were assessed using adjusted odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval and a p-value of 0.05, respectively.

Result

Patients' ages ranged from 3.7 to 2.8 years on average. 4.5% of patients had seizures, and 155 of them (60.5%) were men, with a male-to-female ratio of (1.5 : 1). Males and females experienced seizures on average at 1.3 (95% CI: 1.1, 1.5) and 2 (95% CI: 1.6, 2.5) years old, respectively. AOR: 2.68 (95% CI: 1.192, 6.68, p = 0.02) and AOR: 2.8 (95% CI: 2.576, 5.302, p = 0.04) both demonstrated statistically significant correlations with pediatric seizure.

Conclusion

A vast number of children experienced convulsions, with generalized seizures being the most prevalent form. The chances of a child having a seizure were linked to their family history and where they were born. Therefore, health workers and other people who are involved in healthcare need to work harder on the factors that they have already identified.

Effects of a reduction of the number of electrodes in the EEG montage on the number of identified seizure patterns

Continuous EEG monitoring (cEEG) is frequently used in neurocritical care. The detection of seizures is one of the main objectives. The placement of the EEG electrodes is time consuming, therefore a reduced montage might lead to an increased availability in the ICU setting. It is unknown whether such a reduction of electrodes reduces the number of seizure patterns that are detected. A total of 95 seizure and 95 control EEG sequences from a pediatric epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) were anonymized and reduced to an eight-lead montage. Two experts evaluated the recordings and the seizure detection rates using the reduced and the full montage were compared. Sensitivity and specificity for the seizure detection were calculated using the original EMU findings as gold standard. The sensitivity to detect seizures was 0.65 for the reduced montage compared to 0.76 for the full montage (p = 0.031). The specificities (0.97 and 0.96) were comparable (p = 1). A total of 4/9 (44%) of the generalized, 12/44 (27%) of the frontal, 6/14 (43%) of the central, 0/1 (0%) of the occipital, 6/20 (30%) of the temporal, and 5/7 (71%) of the parietal seizure patterns were not detected using the reduced montage. The median time difference between the onset of the seizure pattern in the full and reduced montage was 0.026s (IQR 5.651s). In this study the reduction of the EEG montage from 21 to eight electrodes reduced the sensitivity to detect seizure patterns from 0.76 to 0.65. The specificity remained virtually unchanged.

Acute Symptomatic Seizures in Critically Ill Children: Frequency, Etiology and Outcomes

Background:

Critically ill individuals have an increased risk of acute symptomatic seizures secondary to systemic illnesses; unrecognized or untreated seizures can quickly convert into status epilepticus, which is associated with high morbidity and mortality.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to determine frequency, etiology, and outcome of seizures in critical ill children admitted in intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital.

Materials and Methods:

Retrospective review of medical records of all children admitted in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of the Aga Khan University from January 2016 to December 2018 and who had a new-onset seizure irrespective of underlying diagnosis was carried out after ethical review committee approval. Data were collected on a structured proforma; it included demographic information as well as relevant clinical and outcome information. The data were analyzed on Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software program, version 19.0. The descriptive statistics frequency and percentage was computed for qualitative variable. Mean and standard deviation were computed for quantitative variable, and univariate analysis was performed.

Results:

During the study period, a total 2053 patients were admitted in the PICU. One hundred six (5%) had seizure. Sixty-three (59.5%) were males. Meningitis 21 (20%), sepsis 21 (20%), complicated pneumonia 18 (17%) were the major primary diagnosis in these children. Mean age of the study population was 75 months (standard deviation [SD] ± 54.4) and 72 (68%) were <5 years of age, whereas 63 (59.5%) were males. The seizures lasted >10min in 10 (10%) and were associated with high had neurological deficit (P = 0.001). We did not observe any correlation with electrolyte imbalance, renal failure, need of ventilator support with duration of seizure, and type of seizure (P > 0.005).

Conclusion:

Infection was the most common etiology associated with a new-onset seizure in children admitted in our PICU. Seizures lasting for >10min were observed with high neurological deficit. We did not find any association of mortality with seizure duration.

Etiology of Non-Traumatic Seizures in Children Admitted to PICU: An Eight-Year Retrospective Study

Purpose

Seizure is a serious neurological symptom in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), yet data on etiologies of non-traumatic childhood seizures in China are scarce. We aimed to investigate the etiological trends of seizures in children admitted to the PICU in our tertiary center.

Patients and Methods

We performed a retrospective analysis of all patients (aged 29 days to 14 years) with non-traumatic seizures, admitted to the PICU of Xiangya Hospital from 2010 to 2017. Etiological analysis was performed to compare data between 2010–2013 and 2014–2017.

Results

The study included 318 patients (male: female = 1.27:1) with mean age of 5.4 ± 4.0 years. The most frequent causes observed were CNS infections (109/318, 34.3%), unknown reason epilepsy (96/318, 30.2%), and immune (56/318, 17.6%). Comparison of the 2010–2013 and 2014–2017 periods revealed a significant decrease in the percentage of CNS infections [48.8% (59/121) vs 25.4% (50/197), p < 0.001] and a significant increase in the incidence of unknown reason epilepsy [(24/121, 19.8%) vs (72/197, 36.5%), p < 0.001] and immune causes [(12/121, 9.9%) vs (44/197, 22.3%), p = 0.005].

Conclusion

CNS infections were the most common cause of seizures during 2010–2013, while non-infectious diseases such as epilepsy and immune disorders represented the leading causes during 2014–2017. Continuous improvement in medical technology and understanding of disease patterns would greatly improve early diagnosis and therapeutic management of such conditions.

Drug-Induced Liver Injury in Critically Ill Children Taking Antiepileptic Drugs: A Retrospective Study

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Critically ill children on anti-epileptic drugs often receive multiple concomitant drugs with potential to result in liver injury.

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Antimicrobial drugs followed by drugs for stress ulcer prophylaxis form the major drug classes with the risk of DILI that are concomitantly administered with anti-epileptic drugs in critically ill children.

Background

Antiepileptic drugs are among the leading causes of drug-induced liver injury (DILI). Due to critical illness, children admitted to intensive care units are more prone to DILI.

Objective

We attempted to elucidate the association between antiepileptic drug use and the associated factors resulting in DILI in a pediatric intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital.

Methods

We carried out an observational retrospective study on children receiving antiepileptic drugs. Details on their demographic characteristics, drugs, serum levels of antiepileptic drugs and liver function tests, and hospital stay were recorded. Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences definitions were adhered to when defining DILI. LiverTox (https://livertox.nih.gov) and DILIrank were used to assess the risks of hepatotoxicity of the concomitant drugs. Regression models were developed for predicting DILI.

Results

Five out of 9 patients taking phenobarbitone (55.6%), 9 out of 12 taking phenytoin monotherapy (75%), 7 out of 10 taking phenytoin/phenobarbitone (70%), all 3 receiving phenytoin/phenobarbitone/valproate sodium, and 1 with phenytoin/carbamazepine developed DILI either in the form of hepatocellular injury or liver biochemical test abnormalities. None of the patients had cholestatic or mixed type of liver injury. All the critically ill children received at least 2 concomitant drugs with hepatotoxic potential. Concomitant category B hepatotoxic drugs and toxic drug levels were significantly associated with increased risk of DILI. Similarly, a trend was observed for less-DILI-concern concomitant drug class and toxic drug levels when the drugs were analyzed by DILIrank classification.

Conclusions

A significant proportion of critically ill children taking antiepileptic drugs experience DILI. Guidelines recommending use of drugs with reduced risk of potential hepatotoxicity for various concomitant disease states in such children admitted to intensive care units receiving antiepileptic drugs are urgently needed.

The Burden of Pediatric Neurocritical Care in the United States

BACKGROUND

Disorders requiring pediatric neurocritical care (PNCC) affect thousands of children annually. We aimed to quantify the burden of PNCC through generation of national estimates of disease incidence, utilization of critical care interventions (CCI), and hospital outcomes.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective cohort analysis of the Kids Inpatient Database over three years to evaluate pediatric traumatic brain injury, neuro-infection or inflammatory diseases, status epilepticus, stroke, hypoxic ischemic injury after cardiac arrest, and spinal cord injury. We evaluated use of CCI, death, length of stay, hospital charges, and poor functional outcome defined as receipt of tracheostomy or gastrostomy or discharge to a medical care facility.

RESULTS

At least one CCI was recorded in 67,058 (23%) children with a primary neurological diagnosis, and considered a PNCC admission. Over half of PNCC admissions had at least one chronic condition, and 23% were treated in children's hospitals. Mechanical ventilation was the most common CCI, but utilization of CCIs varied significantly by diagnosis. Among PNCC admissions, 8110 (12%) children died during hospitalization and 14,067 (21%) children had poor functional outcomes. PNCC admissions cumulatively accounted for over 1.5 million hospital days and over $4 billion in hospital costs in the study years. Most PNCC admissions, across all diagnoses, had prolonged hospitalizations (more than one week) with an average cost of $39.9 thousand per admission.

CONCLUSIONS

This large, nationally representative study shows PNCC diseases are a significant public health burden with substantial risk to children's health. More research is needed to improve outcomes in these vulnerable children.