[Prevention of epilepsy in children following birth trauma].

In a group of 120 children with prenatal and postnatal trauma 31 children with epileptic seizures were found who accounted for 25.8% of neuropsychiatric complications in this group. Epilepsy was more frequent in children with a history of asphyxia than after other forms of perinatal trauma. Seizures were observed either immediately after birth or up to the age of 100 months. In children with delayed onset of seizures evidence of abnormal behaviour with excessive motor agitation, sleep and appetite disturbances was found from the very birth. Besides prophylactic measures applied to avoid complications of pregnancy and labour it is indispensable to separate the children with perinatal trauma and group them for further neuropsychiatric observation in outpatient clinics and to begin treatment which may prevent development of frank epilepsy in at least a part of these children and may contribute to better rehabilitation of brain-damaged children.