A febrile seizure, also known as a fever fit or febrile convulsion is a generalized convulsion caused by elevated body temperature. They most commonly occur in children below the age of three years old and should not be diagnosed in children under the age of 6 months or over the age of 6 years. The cause is the rapidity of the rise in temperature, rather than the actual temperature reached. This article is about the medical condition. ... Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when temperature surrounding is very different. ...

The diagnosis is one that must be arrived at by eliminating more serious causes of seizure: in particular, meningitis must be ruled out. Therefore a doctor's opinon should be sought and in many cases the child would be admitted to hospital overnight for observation and/or tests. Diagnosis (from the Greek words dia = by and gnosis = knowledge) is the process of identifying a disease by its signs, symptoms and results of various diagnostic procedures. ... Seizures (or convulsions) are temporary alterations in brain function expressing themselves into a changed mental state, tonic or clonic movements and various other symptoms. ... Inferior view of a brain with meningitis caused by Haemophilus influenzae. ...

It is reassuring if the cause of seizure can indeed be determined to have been fever, as febrile seizures generally do not cause permanent brain injury; do not tend to recur frequently, as children tend to 'out-grow' them; and do not make the development of adult epilepsy more likely. Fever, also known as pyrexia, is a medical symptom which describes an increase in temperature to levels which are above normal (37 degrees Celsius, 98. ... Brain damage or brain injury is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. ...

Children with febrile convulsions who are destined to suffer from afebrile epileptic attacks in the future will usually exhibit the following:

• A family history of afebrile convulsions in first degree relatives (a parent or sibling)
• A pre-convulsion history of abnormal neurological signs or developmental delay
• A febrile convulsion lasting longer than 15 minutes
• A febrile convulsion with strong indications of focal features before, during or afterward

Family history without qualification refers to the context of Genealogy Family history used in a medical context appears as Family history (medicine) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Neurology is a branch of medicine dealing with disorders of the central and peripheral nervous systems. ... Mental retardation (abbreviated as MR), is a term for a pattern of persistently slow learning of basic motor and language skills (milestones) during childhood, and a significantly below-normal intellectual capacity as an adult. ...

External links

• Febrile seizure

References

1. Wilkinson, I.M.S. Neurology. Blackwell Science. ISBN 0865428549