A febrile seizure is a generalized convulsion caused by elevated body temperature. They most commonly occur in children below the age of three years old.
The diagnosis is one that must be arrived at by eliminating more serious causes of seizure: in particular, meningitis must be ruled out.
It is reassuring if the cause of seizure can indeed be determined to have been fever, as febrile seizures generally do not cause permanent brain injury; do not tend to recur frequently, as children tend to 'out-grow' them; and do not make the development of adult epilepsy more likely.
