Outcomes following prolonged convulsions

Convulsive status epilepticus (CSE) is one of the more worrying paediatric emergencies. It’s less common now because of more ready availability of rapidly-acting anticonvulsants such as buccal midazolam in the community; but there remain concerns about what might happen to the child once the acute fits have stopped. Some earlier work suggested that a high proportion develop problems, but a recent unselected population-based study is more reassuring.

London-based researchers undertook a study back in 2002–2004 identifying all 226 children presenting to 21 north London hospitals with CSE which lasted for at least 30 minutes (NLSTEPS study, Chin R et al. Lancet 2006. doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69043-0). Of these 203 survived, and they were able to contact and follow-up 134, at a mean 9 years after the initial event (STEPSOUT study. Pujar S et al. Lancet Child Adolesc Health 2018. doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(17)30174-8). The long follow-up is important, since many will have had short-term cognitive impairment,...

from Archives of Disease in Childhood current issue https://ift.tt/2qNYRiG