Title: Clinical profile and short-term outcome of status epilepticus in children

Introduction: Status Epilepticus (SE) can present with varied clinical manifestations and aetiologies, which vary with age and geographical areas. In view of paucity of data regarding the aetiology and treatment outcomes of SE in Indian children, this study was done.

Methods: A prospective study, in which, all Children aged 1 month to 18 years presenting to  emergency department in SE, in the 16-month study duration, were enrolled and treated as per the standard protocol followed in the hospital. Patients were followed till discharge or death. Data was collected and analysed using IBM SPPS statistics software version 21.

Results: A total of 109 children, aged 1 month to 14 years were enrolled. Benzodiazepine responsive SE was seen in 65 (59.63%) children. Sixteen (14.68%) children did not respond to second line anti-epileptic drugs. Acute symptomatic aetiology was identified in 52 (47.71%) cases, and overall, acute CNS infections (24.77%) were the predominant cause. Out of 83 children, who were neurologically normal before presentation, 67 (80.72%) had favourable outcome (POPC scale score 1 or 2) and mortality rate was 7.34%.  Significant predictors of unfavourable short-term outcome were found to be acute CNS infections (p<0.001), who had received some treatment before but still presenting at our institution in SE (p=0.004) and refractoriness to treatment (p<0.001).

Conclusion/Discussion: Acute symptomatic aetiology, mainly, CNS infections, is the largest cause of SE in the study group. Refractoriness to treatment and CNS infections were associated with poor outcome.