• Jennifer M Kwon, Ronnie Guillet, Seetha Shankaran, Abbot R Laptook, Scott A McDonald, Richard A Ehrenkranz, Jon E Tyson, T Michael O'Shea, Ronald N Goldberg, Edward F Donovan, Avroy A Fanaroff, W Kenneth Poole, Rosemary D Higgins, Michele C Walsh, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network.
• Departments of Neurology and Pediatrics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA. jennifer_kwon@urmc.rochester.edu
• J. Child Neurol. 2011 Mar 1;26(3):322-8.

AbstractIt remains controversial as to whether neonatal seizures have additional direct effects on the developing brain separate from the severity of the underlying encephalopathy. Using data collected from infants diagnosed with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, and who were enrolled in an National Institute of Child Health and Human Development trial of hypothermia, we analyzed associations between neonatal clinical seizures and outcomes at 18 months of age. Of the 208 infants enrolled, 102 received whole body hypothermia and 106 were controls. Clinical seizures were generally noted during the first 4 days of life and rarely afterward. When adjustment was made for study treatment and severity of encephalopathy, seizures were not associated with death, or moderate or severe disability, or lower Bayley Mental Development Index scores at 18 months of life. Among infants diagnosed with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, the mortality and morbidity often attributed to neonatal seizures can be better explained by the underlying severity of encephalopathy.

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