Status Epilepticus in emergency department: Retrospective analysis from the general community hospital “Evaggelismos”

Abstract

We retrospectively identified patients from a large community hospital in Athens who had been diagnosed
with status epilepticus (SE) at emergency department (ED) between 1st June 2010 and 30th May 2012.
Their data were reviewed according to sociodemographic variables, treatment and outcome. Seventy-three
patients with SE with a median age of 55.1 years (range 16-92) were included in the study. The etiology
was acute symptomatic in 37 patients, remote symptomatic in 24 and idiopathic in 12 of them. Forty-six
patients were presented with primary or secondary generalized convulsive SE, 25 patients remained in
partial SE and 2 were diagnosed with non-convulsive SE (NCSE). Twenty nine patients were treated with
anticonvulsant drugs (AED) before SE onset. At ED the first time treatment was benzodiazepines in 82%
of patients. ICU admission was necessary for 27 patients. Median time of hospitalization was 8 days (range
1-237 d). General outcome was good with over 70% survival.