Comparison of febrile seizures in children with or without coronavirus disease‐2019: A single‐center observational study

Background Febrile seizure (FS) is one of the most common neurological manifestations of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) in children. We compared the clinical characteristics of FSs between the patients with and without COVID-19 during the pandemic period of COVID-19. Methods This retrospective single-center study included patients aged 0–18 years who visited the pediatric emergency department (ED) with FS from January 1, 2022, to April 30, 2022. Results A total of 186 patients visited the pediatric ED with FS during the study period: 123 (66.1%) were positive for COVID-19 and 63 (33.9%) were negative. Patients with COVID-19 were predominantly male (70.7% vs. 50.8%, P=0.007) and older (2.4 vs. 1.8 years, P=0.005) than those without COVID-19. A higher proportion of patients with COVID-19 were of atypical age (age >5 years or <6 months) than those without COVID-19 (26.8% vs. 9.5%, P=0.006). This was especially true for those aged >5 years (22% vs. 4.8%, P=0.003). Patients with COVID-19 had a higher probability of multiple episodes of convulsion within 24 h than those without COVID-19 (10.6% vs. 1.6%, P=0.037). Among patients with COVID-19, males had a shorter fever-to-seizure duration than females (3 h vs. 6.5 h, P=0.045). Conclusions Patients with FS with COVID-19 tend to be predominantly male and have older age of onset than those without COVID-19. Because of the atypical age of onset and probability of multiple convulsion episodes, vigilance for FS is needed in patients with COVID-19, especially males.