Causes of stroke in children

Objective: to look into the causes of stroke in children in tertiary care pediatric neurology centre hospital. design: descriptive study with a prospective data. place & duration of study: department of pediatric neurology,the children’s hospital & institute of child health,lahore from october 1st,2009 through september 30th,2013 (four years). subjects & methods: clinical data of 100 children (age one month to 18 years) diagnosed as acute stroke according to who definition were enrolled in the study. they were evaluated for the etiology and immediate outcome. results: one hundred children were included in the study. age range was 4.4 years to 15.9 years (mean 7.1 years). there were 63% males and 37% females. there were 37% children with hemorrhage,46% with ischemic stroke and 17% had hemorrhagic ischemia. majority (91%) had arterial involvement while 9% had venous sinus thrombosis. following causes have been identified: dehydration (27%),viral infections of central nervous system (24%),bacterial infections of head and neck region (21%),congenital heart diseases (15%),coagulopathy (14%),iron deficiency anemia (13%). more than one factor was found in 63% children and there was no factor identifiable in 3% children. majority of children were discharged with variable degree of morbidity. conclusion: infections of central nervous system,dehydration,congenital heart diseases,vasculitis,hypercoaguable conditions and iron deficiency anemia are the major causes for stroke in our population. more local data is required to identify causes,risk factors in stroke in children. © 2015,pakistan pediatric journal. all rights reserved.