Objectives: We aimed to determine the incidence of electrographic seizures in children in the pediatric intensive care unit who underwent EEG monitoring, risk factors for electrographic seizures, and whether electrographic seizures were associated with increased odds of mortality.Methods: Eleven sites in North America retrospectively reviewed a total of 550 consecutive children in pediatric intensive care units who underwent EEG monitoring. We collected data on demographics, diagnoses, clinical seizures, mental status at EEG onset, EEG background, interictal epileptiform discharges, electrographic seizures, intensive care unit length of stay, and in-hospital mortality.Results: Electrographic seizures occurred in 162 of 550 subjects (30%), of which 61 subjects (38%) had electrographic status epilepticus. Electrographic seizures were exclusively subclinical in 59 of 162 subjects (36%). A multivariable logistic regression model showed that independent risk factors for electrographic seizures included younger age, clinical seizures prior to EEG monitoring, an abnormal initial EEG background, interictal epileptiform discharges, and a diagnosis of epilepsy. Subjects with electrographic status epilepticus had greater odds of in-hospital death, even after adjusting for EEG background and neurologic diagnosis category.Conclusions: Electrographic seizures are common among children in the pediatric intensive care unit, particularly those with specific risk factors. Electrographic status epilepticus occurs in more than one-third of children with electrographic seizures and is associated with higher in-hospital mortality. Neurology â 2013;81:383-391 GLOSSARY CEEG 5 continuous EEG; CI 5 confidence interval; IQR 5 interquartile range; OR 5 odds ratio; PICU 5 pediatric intensive care unit.

Objective: To describe the time elapsed from onset of pediatric convulsive status epilepticus (SE) to administration of antiepileptic drug (AED).Methods: This was a prospective observational cohort study performed from June 2011 to June 2013. Pediatric patients (1 month-21 years) with convulsive SE were enrolled. In order to study timing of AED administration during all stages of SE, we restricted our study population to patients who failed 2 or more AED classes or needed continuous infusions to terminate convulsive SE. Results:We enrolled 81 patients (44 male) with a median age of 3.6 years. The first, second, and third AED doses were administered at a median (p 25 -p 75 ) time of 28 (6-67) minutes, 40 (20-85) minutes, and 59 (30-120) minutes after SE onset. Considering AED classes, the initial AED was a benzodiazepine in 78 (96.3%) patients and 2 (2-3) doses of benzodiazepines were administered before switching to nonbenzodiazepine AEDs. The first and second doses of nonbenzodiazepine AEDs were administered at 69 (40-120) minutes and 120 (75-296) minutes. In the 64 patients with out-of-hospital SE onset, 40 (62.5%) patients did not receive any AED before hospital arrival. In the hospital setting, the first and second in-hospital AED doses were given at 8 (5-15) minutes and 16 (10-40) minutes after SE onset (for patients with in-hospital SE onset) or after hospital arrival (for patients with out-of-hospital SE onset). Conclusions:The time elapsed from SE onset to AED administration and escalation from one class of AED to another is delayed, both in the prehospital and in-hospital settings. Status epilepticus (SE) is one of the most common pediatric neurologic emergencies.1 It has a mortality of 0%-3% 2-7 and morbidity that includes cognitive and neurodevelopmental impairments, epilepsy, and recurrent SE.2,8-10 SE is often refractory to the initial antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), 11,12 and refractory SE is associated with poor outcome. 12 Patient age, etiology, and SE duration all affect outcome, 5,9,13 but only SE duration is a potentially modifiable factor by rapid AED treatment. By convention, the treatment of convulsive SE is a sequence of AEDs, typically