Table 1.

Definitions of acute seizures

Acute seizures	Seizures associated with an acute illness or an acute CNS insult, which may be metabolic, toxic, structural, infectious, or due to inflammation. Unlike epilepsy, the proximate cause of these seizures is clearly identifiable to the extent one can ever be certain of a causal association19
Febrile seizure	Seizures in children ages 1 month to 6 years who had a febrile illness without malaria parasitemia or evidence of bacterial meningitis or encephalitis (cerebrospinal fluid white cell count > 50/μl)
Phenotypes of acute seizures
Focal seizure	Seizure starting or involving one part of the body
Repetitive seizure	More than one seizure in current illness
Convulsive status epilepticus	Seizures lasting >30 min or intermittent seizures for >30 min without regaining consciousness, Blantyre Coma Score <3
Complex acute seizures	Seizures that are focal, repetitive, or prolonged, including convulsive status epilepticus
Simple acute seizures	Incidental tonic‐clonic seizures, no sign of complex seizures
Epilepsy	The occurrence of repeated unprovoked seizures, at least two, occurring more than 24 h apart

CNS, central nervous system.