Status Epilepticus Diagnostic and Management Approach in Emergency Department

Abstract

Status Epilepticus (SE) is a condition that arises from existing neurological disorders, including epilepsy syndromes. It refers to a state of incessant clinical and/or electrographic seizure activity, or recurrent seizure activity within 5 minutes during which the patient does not recover to a normal level of consciousness between seizures. It is also a medical emergency with a high complication rate. The Medline, PubMed, Embase, NCBI, and Cochrane databases were searched for studies of patients with SE. The incidence, etiology, and management options were analyzed. The reason why it is best to broadly classify SE as convulsive and nonconvulsive is that there are many types of seizures as there are types of SE. The complications likely to arise are both medical and neurological, as well as immediate and delayed. Neurological complications include recurrent status epilepticus and progression to chronic epilepsy. Patients with refractory status epilepticus are also likely to exhibit permanent neurological damage caused by abnormal and prolonged electrical activity in the brain, which induces hyper-metabolic activity. This is why it is recommended to begin treatment before the patient has even reached the hospital.