Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen in Controlling Fever and Preventing Convulsion in Children With Febrile Seizure

Abstract

Background: Febrile seizure is one of the most prevalent pediatric diseases. An essential part of the physicians’ efforts is to decreasing the parents’ stress level when they confront febrile diseases in children. Objectives: This study was performed to compare the effects of acetaminophen and ibuprofen on controlling fever and preventing seizures in children with febrile seizure. Patients and Methods: In this study, 36 children who were under the control of acetaminophen in the case of febrile diseases occurrence as well as 36 who were under the control of ibuprofen were included. After prescribing the drug for the febrile disease period (ibuprofen, 10 mg/kg every 6 hours; acetaminophen, 15 mg/kg every 6 hours), the parents were asked to record the children’s body temperatures as well as any occurrence of convulsion in periods of 0, 2, 4, 6, 12, and 24 hours after the administration of the first dose. Results: The mean temperature at the time of starting drug administration was 39.06℃ ± 0.56℃ in the acetaminophen and 39.19℃ ± 0.61℃ in the ibuprofen group (P = 0.335). There was no significant difference between the temperature decrease following ibuprofen and acetaminophen administration one, two, and four hours after the drug administration (P =0.055, P = 0.181, and P = 0.0167, respectively), but the difference was significant after 6, 12, and 24 hours (P value of 0.006, 0.044, and 0.005, respectively). No serious or important adverse effect was reported in patients. Conclusions: In this study, the type of antipyretic drug did not have any effect on preventing the convulsions. However, ibuprofen was more effective than acetaminophen for controlling fever in children and no significant adverse effect was observed by consuming any of the medications.