Epilepsy Currents published the guideline in its January/February issue.
Here are five facts:
1. The guideline aims to quickly stop seizure activity to lower the risk of neurological injuries and death.
2. When drafting the guideline, the AES reviewed all available adult and pediatric evidence, and then created a treatment algorithm that features various phases of treatment. The phases include:
• Stabilization phase (0 minutes to 5 minutes of seizure activity)
• Initial therapy phase (5 minutes to 20 minutes of seizure activity)
• Second therapy phase (20 minutes to 40 minutes of seizure activity)
• Third therapy phase (40+ minutes of seizure activity)
3. AES’s guideline also provides physicians evidence-based answers to the effectiveness, safety and tolerability questions about convulsive status epileptics treatment.
4. Depending on the causes or severity of the seizure, AES found evidence proving clinicians may go through the phases faster or even skip the second phase and move quickly to the third phase.
5. The Epilepsy Foundation, Child Neurology Society, Association of Child Neurology Nurses, American College of Emergency Physicians and American Association of Neuroscience Nurses endorsed the guideline.
“In treating status epilepticus there is an overriding urgency to stop seizures before the 30-minute mark when seizure-associated neurologic injury can occur,” said guideline coauthor Shlomo Shinnar, MD, PhD, with Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City and Chicago-based Montefiore Medical Center. “This guideline supports an aggressive approach to treating status epilepticus and seeks to bring some structure to what can often be a chaotic and dire medical situation.”
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