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Background: Febrile seizure is a frequent cause of hospitalization. Its management remains problematic. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, lumbar puncture, which is not devoid of risk, is strongly recommended in infants under 1 year., Aim: to define the utility of lumbar puncture in the management of febrile seizures in infants under 12 months and to identify risk factors of meningitis and to respond to this question: "lumbar punction should be done in which infant with febrile seizure?", Patients and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in the department of pediatrics B in the Children Hospital of Tunis on eight-year period (2000-2008). In all statistical tests, significance level was set at 0.05., Results: One hundred and six cases were collected during the period of study. Seizures related to bacterial meningitis were seen in 11 cases (10%). We have separated two groups: GI infants presented bacterial meningitis, and G2 infants with febrile seizure. The comparison between the two groups G1 and G2 showed the following predictors factors of meningitis: age < or = 7 months (p = 0.035), partial seizure (p = 0.028), duration of seizure > 5 min (p < 0.001), recurrence of seizure in the same day(p = 0,006), neurological abnormalities p < 0.001), CRP > 20 mg/l (p = 0.03), hyponatremia < or = 125 mmol/l (p = 0.01). The risk of meningitis is very low: 3.1 x 10 -3, if this condition is met: infants older than 7 months, having a unique and short seizure < or = 5 min, and with a CRP < or = 20mg/l., Conclusion: If the infant is older than 7 months, presenting a unique, febrile and short (< or = 5 min) seizure, having a normal neurological examination with CRP < or = 20 mg/l, lumbar puncture should be discussed a case by case but an hospitalization for 24 hours is required for monitoring.

Child epilepsy continues to concern the researchers and the clinicians and carried out these last years of important progress as well in the genetic field, as in physiopathology, clinic and therapeutic one. The identification of new genes of epilepsy, epilepsies related to channelopathy and new phenotypes related to precise genetic mutations, constitutes a major progress of paediatric epilepsy. The debate around the role of febrile convulsions in the development of hippocampal sclerosis is started again thanks to Diffusion MRI techniques. In utero exposure to antiepileptic drugs (AED), and its effects on neurodevelopment, is a very active field of research. An exposure to a polytherapy or to valproate would increase the risk of development delay. The ketogenic diet could be an alternative therapeutic during refractory epilepsies but can have serious consequences on the growth. Temporal lobe surgery is a good therapeutic option for refractory epilepsies of the child and offers, to him, better chances of social integration.

The authors report a retrospective study of 11 observations of partial frontal epilepsy. Cases have been selected on the basis of a complete lack of any associated neurological or psychiatric sign and a disappearance of seizures with normalization of the EEG trace for more than 5 years. This peculiar type of focal epilepsy characterized by an EEG frontal spike focus is first shown to share clinical and electroencephalographic signs with other forms of benign epilepsy of childhood and adolescence. Then the predictive value of some electro-clinical criteria to indicate a favourable outcome is examined.