The evaluation of accesses for febrile and afebrile seizures in the pediatric emergency department during Covid-19 lockdown

Abstract

We aimed to evaluate the admissions to the pediatric emergency department (PED) due to seizures one year before and one year after the first COVID-19 case in Turkey. The admission time was divided into as prelockdown period (March 2019-February 2020), and lockdown period (March 2020 – February2021). Seizures were divided into 6 parts as: first simple febril convulsion (FK), first complex FK, recurrent simple FK, recurrent complex FK, first nonfebrile seizure, and recurrent nonfebrile seizure. Prelockdown and lockdown periods were compared in terms of demographic and clinical characteristics and monthly admission of patients. The total number of patients admitted to PED was 37.323 and 10.191 patients during the prelockdown and lockdown period, respectively. While seizure-related PED accesses were 918 during the prelockdown period, 508 patients admitted to the PED during the lockdown period. Monthly average admissions were decreased in all seizure types during the lockdown period. The ratio of the first simple febrile seizure to total seizure decreased from 22.4% (206/918) to 16.3% (83/508), while the ratio of first afebrile seizure to total seizure increased from 29.6% (272/918) to 36.8% (186/508). While, the rate of first febrile seizures decreased, a significant increase in the rate of first afebrile seizures was observed. It is suggested that risk factors such as depression/anxiety or screen exposure may have caused seizures that had a predisposition to seizures.

Keywords

• pediatric emergency department
• children
• COVID-19
• pandemic
• seizure
• lockdown

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