Objectives:

To describe the incidence and clinical characteristics of newborns who experienced seizures in the neonatal period in a general hospital in Mexico City.

Material and methods:

An observational and retrospective study was carried out. Newborns admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and who presented seizures during the first 28 days of life were included. The causes of the seizures were investigated and electroencephalogram was performed in all patients.

Results:

There were nine newborns with seizures in a one year period; thus the estimated prevalence in the period was 2.95%. Seven patients were female and premature; gestational age ranged from 29 to 38 weeks of gestation and, in almost all, seizures began within the first seven days of life. In all but not in one, the cause was documented; being metabolic the most frequent in three newborns (hypoglycemia, hyponatremia, hypocalcemia), one patient had hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, another intraventricular hemorrhage, one meningitis and another malformation of the central nervous system.

Conclusion:

These findings reflect that basic care is what should be given to newborns in NICU when they present seizures, always thinking on the most common causes of this comorbidity.