In practice, treatment delays are common.
Effective anticonvulsant medications for the treatment of convulsive status epilepticus are available, but treatment delays result in longer seizure duration, increasing the potential for neurologic morbidity (Neurology 2014; 82:396). Convulsive status epilepticus is common in children, and prompt recognition and treatment decrease the development of neurologic morbidity, but data on the time until medication administration are limited. In a prospective, observational, 2-year study, 81 children (median age, 3.6 years) with convulsive seizures refractory to two or more doses of antiepileptic drugs (AED) were enrolled, and the timing of medication administration was recorded.
The median time to administration was 28 minutes until the first ben…