Febrile Seizure and Related Seizures and Epilepsies

When we were asked to edit this issue of the Journal of Pediatric Epilepsy about febrile seizures and fever-related seizure disorders in children, we immediately thought of the book edited by Tallie Baram and Scholommo Schinnar that was published in 2002. This became an essential reading in the library for many pediatric neurologists around the world and for many years was one of the sources that compiles this information in one source. Since then, our knowledge about febrile seizures and related disorders continued to increase substantially. Febrile seizure is still one of the most common seizure disorders. It affects ∼2 to 5% of children and there is no pediatrician, pediatric emergency room physician, or child neurologist that has not encountered this condition. Clinicians need to advise families about diagnosis, proper laboratory testing, risk of recurrences, potential treatment, and long-term prognosis. To do so, multiple factors must be taken into consideration. These include family history, presence of neurological abnormalities, seizure type, and seizure duration. Clinicians must also be aware of specific epilepsy syndromes, which can present at onset, with seizures and fever. Early recognition of these syndromes is important for initiation of appropriate treatment. In this special edition, the editors tried to explore the complex association between fever and seizures. The issue gathers a panel of authors with extensive expertise in this field to offer a detailed but practical analysis of different topics. We hope this review can be useful to clinical practitioners involved in the evaluation and decision-making process of children presenting with febrile seizures. The articles highlight the most recent epidemiological data, physiopathology, molecular mechanisms, approach, and genetic advances related to this topic.

We are grateful to Dr. Huseyin Caksen, general editor of the journal, for the opportunity he granted us.