Etiologies of seizures in young children admitted to an inner city hospital in a developing country.

Objectives: In this study, we aimed to document the etiologies of seizures in young children in an urban reference hospital in a developing county.

Methods: One hundred fifty-six children (aged 1 to 24 months) hospitalized in an inner city hospital between 2000 and 2004 with seizures were evaluated retrospectively in terms of etiologies and some risk factors.

Results: The seizures were cryptogenic (presumed symptomatic) in 9 (5%) patients, symptomatic in 29 (18.6%) patients, and situation-related (febrile, hypocalcemic, hyponatremic, and hypoglycemic) in 118 (75.6%) patients. Hypocalcemia due to rickets was the leading cause (25.6%) of afebrile seizures in this population.

Conclusions: Hypocalcemia has an important place in the etiology of afebrile seizures among our patients unlike in many developed countries. So, nutritional status should be kept in mind while evaluating the etiologies of seizures in young children in developing countries.