Introduction: Simple febrile seizures are generalised in onset, last less than 15 minutes, and do not occur more than once in 24 hours. Complex seizures are longer lasting, have focal symptoms, and can recur within 24 hours. This review only deals with simple febrile seizures. About 2-5% of children in the USA and Western Europe, and 6-9% of infants and children in Japan, will have experienced at least one febrile seizure by the age of 5 years. Simple febrile seizures may slightly increase the risk of developing epilepsy, but have no known adverse effects on behaviour, scholastic performance, or neurocognition.
Methods and outcomes: We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of treatments given during episodes of fever in children with one or more previous simple febrile seizures? What are the effects of long-term (daily, for more than 1 month) anticonvulsant treatment in children with a history of simple febrile seizures? What are the effects of treatments on reducing the risk of subsequent epilepsy in children with a history of simple febrile seizures? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library and other important databases up to August 2007 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically, please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Results: We found 19 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.
Conclusions: In this systematic review we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: anticonvulsants (intermittent or continuous), and antipyretic treatments (physical antipyretic measures, paracetamol, ibuprofen).