Prolonged recovery of consciousness in children following symptomatic epileptic seizures

AbstractIntroductionThere is little published data on the duration of depressed consciousness following epileptic seizures. A prolonged recovery time may be a symptom of underlying brain pathology. This prospective paediatric cohort study investigates whether recovery is prolonged following symptomatic seizures.MethodsChildren aged 1–16 years, who had a witnessed seizure in which consciousness was impaired, were recruited. One hundred and twenty eight children (158 seizures) were studied. Seizure aetiology was classified as febrile, idiopathic, remote symptomatic, acute symptomatic and acute on remote symptomatic. At least hourly Paediatric Coma Scale recordings were used to assess recovery time.ResultsRecovery time was longest for children with acute on remote symptomatic seizures (4.0h, range 0.89–10.5), followed by those with acute symptomatic seizures (1.94h, range 0–35.27), remote symptomatic seizures (1.5h, range 0.07–85.5) and idiopathic seizures (0.83h, range 0.07–13.13). Children with febrile seizures recovered the quickest (0.3h, range 0.05–9). Recovery time was significantly longer (p