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Association of Child Neurology (AOCN) Consensus Statement on the Diagnosis and Management of Febrile Seizures

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Abstract

Justification

Febrile seizures are quite common in children but there are controversies in many aspects of their diagnosis and management.

Methods

An expert group consisting of pediatric neurologists and pediatricians was constituted. The modified Delphi method was used to develop consensus on the issues of definitions and investigations. The writing group members reviewed the literature and identified the contentious issues under these subheadings. The questions were framed, pruned, and discussed among the writing group members. The final questions were circulated to all experts during the first round of Delphi consensus. The results of the first round were considered to have arrived at a consensus if more than 75% experts agreed. Contentious issues that reached a 50–75% agreement was discussed further in online meetings and subsequently voting was done over an online platform to arrive at a consensus. Three rounds of Delphi were conducted to arrive at final statements.

Results

The expert group arrived at a consensus on 52 statements. These statements pertain to definitions of febrile seizures, role of blood investigations, urine investigations, neuroimaging, electroencephalography (EEG), cerebrospinal fluid analysis and screening for micronutrient deficiency. In addition, role of rescue medications, intermittent anti-seizure medication and continuous prophylaxis, antipyretic medication and micronutrient supplementation have been covered.

Conclusion

This consensus statement addresses various contentious issues pertaining to the diagnosis and management of febrile seizures. Adoption of these statements in office practice will improve and standardize the care of children with this disorder.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, Haryana, India

    Jaya Shankar Kaushik

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, Maharasthra, India

    Vishal Sondhi

  3. Department of Pediatric Neurology, Christian College of Medical Sciences, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

    Sangeeta Yoganathan

  4. Department of Pediatric Neurology, Medanta Hospital, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Rachana Dubey

  5. Department of Pediatrics, Lady Hardinge Medical College and Kalawati Saran Children Hospital, New Delhi, India

    Suvasini Sharma

  6. Department of Pediatric Neurology, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, Kerala, India

    Kollencheri Puthenveettil Vinayan

  7. Department of Pediatrics, University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi, India

    Piyush Gupta

  8. Department of Pediatric Neurology, Madhukar Rainbow Children Hospital, Malviya Nagar, Delhi, India

    Rekha Mittal

Authors
  1. Jaya Shankar Kaushik
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  2. Vishal Sondhi
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  3. Sangeeta Yoganathan
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  4. Rachana Dubey
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  5. Suvasini Sharma
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  6. Kollencheri Puthenveettil Vinayan
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  7. Piyush Gupta
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  8. Rekha Mittal
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Consortia

for AOCN Expert Committee

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rekha Mittal.

Additional information

Full list of Committee members provided as Annexure.

Contributors

SS, RM, JSK: conceptualized the idea; JSK, VS, SY, RD, SS, KPV, PG, RM: constituted the writing committee and drafted the manuscript; JSK and VS were involved in administration of Delphi process. All authors approved the final version of manuscript.

Funding

None

Competing interests

None stated.

Note

Additional material related to this study is available with the online version at www.indianpediatrics.net

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Kaushik, J.S., Sondhi, V., Yoganathan, S. et al. Association of Child Neurology (AOCN) Consensus Statement on the Diagnosis and Management of Febrile Seizures. Indian Pediatr 59, 300–306 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-022-2497-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-022-2497-2

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