Diagnostic Value of Lumbar Puncture in Afebrile Infants with Suspected New-Onset Seizures

Lateef, Tarannum M.; Tsuchida, Tammy N.; Chang, Taeun; Johnson, Jami; Gaillard, William D.; Nelson, Karin B.

doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2008.02.030

« Previous Next »The Journal of Pediatrics
Volume 153, Issue 1 , Pages 140-142, July 2008

Diagnostic Value of Lumbar Puncture in Afebrile Infants with Suspected New-Onset Seizures

Tarannum M. Lateef, MD
- Department of Neurology, Children's National Medical Center and George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC
- Reprint requests: Tarannum Musvee Lateef, MD, Department of Neurology, Children's National Medical Center, 111 Michigan Ave, Washington D.C. 20010.
Tammy N. Tsuchida, MD, PhD
- Department of Neurology, Children's National Medical Center and George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC
Taeun Chang, MD
- Department of Neurology, Children's National Medical Center and George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC
Jami Johnson, BS
- Department of Neurology, Children's National Medical Center and George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC
William D. Gaillard, MD
- Department of Neurology, Children's National Medical Center and George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.
Karin B. Nelson, MD
- Department of Neurology, Children's National Medical Center and George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.

Received 13 September 2007; received in revised form 24 January 2008; accepted 14 February 2008.

No established guidelines address the need for lumbar puncture in fever-free infants younger than 6 months of age with a first seizure. We analyzed cerebrospinal fluid results in infants and found that lumbar puncture adds little diagnostic value to the evaluation of young, well-appearing infants presenting with possible new-onset seizures.

Abbreviations: CSF, Cerebrospinal fluid, HSV, Herpes simplex virus, LP, Lumbar puncture, PCR, Polymerase chain reaction