About this episode
Contributor: Jared Scott, MD Educational Pearls: Differential Diagnosis: non-accidental trauma, febrile seizure, meningitis, hyponatremia, epilepsy Convulsions with gastroenteritis is a known entity to cause seizures in infancy Predominantly occurs in ages 6 months to 3 years Occur with diarrheal episodes No electrolyte abnormalities associated with the seizure nor severe dehydration Seizures tend to come in clusters Most have a normal EEG and do not develop epilepsy Reported incidence in gastroenteritis of 1-2% of gastroenteritis Treatment addresses the seizures but long term anti-epileptic drugs are typically not needed References Kang B, Kwon YS. Benign convulsion with mild gastroenteritis. Korean J Pediatr. 2014;57(7):304-309. doi:10.3345/kjp.2014.57.7.304 Ma X, Luan S, Zhao Y, Lv X, Zhang R. Clinical characteristics and follow-up of benign convulsions with mild gastroenteritis among children. Medicine (Baltimore). 2019;98(2):e14082. doi:10.1097/MD.0000000000014082 Image credit: Kurt Christensen Summarized by John Spartz, MS3 | Edited by Erik Verzemnieks, MD