Background: Seizures are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in childhood. It is therefore important to establish accurate diagnosis of seizures and its aetiologies to appropriately manage such patients. Neuroimaging can help to determine whether a seizure in a patient results from a structural abnormality of the brain or its surroundings. It is useful in a variety of clinical settings. The present study was undertaken to find the role of computed tomography (CT) scan in identifying non-neoplastic cause of seizure disorders in children.

Materials & Methods: It was a hospital based cross sectional observational study. Age, sex, characterization of seizure including onset, time of attack ,provocative factors, first attack, total no of attacks, frequency of attack, status of consciousness, prodrome, aura, cerebellar symptoms, duration, post ictal phenomenon, history of drug intake, control of attack by drugs, family h/o of seizure, birth history were noted. 

Results: In the present study 34.5% of children belong to 6-9 yrs age group followed by 27.6% of 16-18 yrs group. Most common type of seizure was generalised tonic clonic seizures (29.31%) followed by complex partial (25.86%), simple partial (17.24%) and unclassified/epilepsy syndromes (13.79%).About 46.55% of cases CT for detection of lesions were useful in our study.

Conclusion: Though the MRI is more specific in detecting certain focal anomalies its expense and non-availability make CT scan an adequate initial screening procedure. Thus every child with a seizure should be subjected to a CT scan to determine the underlying aetiology and offer specific treatment.

Keywords: Seizure disorders, Non-neoplastic aetiologies, Computerized tomography, Neuroimaging.

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Dr Sheela Kandulna (Goswami)

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