Rx Note

Introduction Most seizures are brief and end within 1 to 3 minutes without drug treatment. Status epilepticus refers to continuous seizure activity or repeated seizures without full recovery of consciousness between attacks. The minimum duration of continuous seizure activity required for the diagnosis of status epilepticus is traditionally agreed to be 30 minutes. However, drug treatment for a seizure should start after 5 minutes of continuous seizure activity. Status epilepticus may be convulsive (e.g. tonic-clonic) or nonconvulsive (e.g. absence status epilepticus). The treatment of nonconvulsive status epilepticus is less urgent and the risks of therapy, particularly respiratory depression, must be weighed against the risks of continuing nonconvulsive seizures. NOTE: Patients with a single episode of status epilepticus have a 10-30% risk of a lifetime recurrence and a 20-40% chance of developing epilepsy . Some Causes of Acute Symptomatic Seizures Resolution of the cause usually s...