WHICH CASES OF GASTROENTERITIS WILL TEND TO GET INTO CONVULSION

Objective: To identify risk factors for seizures in-patient with gastroenteritis. Methodology: It is a match case control study of children who were admitted from March 2004 to February 2005 at Mofid Children’s Hospital affiliated to Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Science in Tehran, Iran. Paraclinical investigations including serum electrolytes, blood culture, stool smear and culture were performed in all patients. Hundred patients were studied, 50 patients with gastroenteritis and convulsion (the case group) with 50 cases as control group (gastroenteritis but without convulsion). Results: The comparison between case and control groups demonstrated that fever and shigellosis were related to convulsion, while the relation of inflammatory gastroenteritis is not quite significant and electrolyte imbalance and dehydration are not related to the incidence of convulsion. Conclusions: Reduction of fever and appropriate drug treatment are important for shigellosis in the prevention of convulsion.