Respiratory syncytial virus-associated seizures in Korean children, 2011–2016

Cha, Teahyen; Choi, Young Jin; Oh, Jae-Won; Kim, Chang-Ryul; Park, Dong Woo; Seol, In Joon; Moon, Jin-Hwa

An enveloped virus with negative-sense single-stranded RNA genome, RSV belongs to the Paramyxoviridae family. 9, 19) According to a recent systematic review, 33.1 million children aged less than 5 years are estimated to exhibit RSV-associated acute lower respiratory infections globally. Among them, 3.2 million are hospitalized and 59,600 cases result in in-hospital deaths. 1) Beside the common respiratory manifestations, extrapulmonary symptoms can be caused by RSV infection of the heart, liver, kidney, endocrine, and central nervous system. 3, 9) Although uncommon, central nervous system involvement is an important complication of RSV infection. The representative neurological manifestations are encephalopathy, seizures, and apnea. The rare complications are strabismus, acute axonal polyneuropathy, and diaphragmatic flutter. 4, 20, 21) However, most of the previous studies have focused on acute encephalopathy and PICU cases, and only a few have investigated the milder febrile seizure and afebrile seizures. 11, 12, 22) In the present study, we included overall seizures, which were reasonably presumed to be caused by RSV infection.