Aetiology of neonatal seizures
| Aetiology | Percentage contribution13 |
|---|---|
| Hypoxia-ischaemia (“asphyxia”) | 46 |
| CNS infection | 17 |
| Meningitis, encephalitis, intrauterine infections | |
| Intracranial haemorrhage | 10 |
| Extradural, subdural, subarachnoid haemorrhage, periventricular haemorrhage (PVH) | 6 |
| Cerebral artery infarction | 6 |
| Acute metabolic disturbance | 5 |
| Hypoglycaemia, hypocalcaemia, hypomagnesaemia, hyper or hyponatraemia (or rapidly changing sodium) | |
| Inborn error of metabolism | 4 |
| Aminoacidurias, urea cycle defects, organic acidopathies, peroxisomal disorders, pyridoxine dependency | |
| CNS malformation | 4 |
| Maternal drug intoxication | |
| Cocaine, heroin, methadone, etc | |
| Hypertensive encephalopathy | |
| Benign neonatal seizures | |
| Benign familial neonatal convulsions (BFNC) | |
| Benign idiopathic neonatal convulsions (BINC, “fifth day fits”) | |
| Benign neonatal sleep myoclonus | |
| Neonatal epileptic syndromes | |
| Idiopathic | 2 |