7. Frequency and etiology of status epilepticus in pediatric patient of KAUH, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background Status epilepticus (SE) is a condition of continuous seizure which persists more than 30 min or two or more seizures without full recovery. Any seizure that lasts more than 5 min needs to be considered as a case of SE for successful management of the condition. SE poses serious threat to life in children and requires immediate medical attention because continuous seizures not only damage the brain but also hinders the development of brain in later stages. Purpose and relevance The purpose of this study was to evaluate etiology and frequency of SE among children in Jeddah region of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Moreover, there is paucity of data on SE among infants and children in this region. Hence, this study will be helpful to assess the factors associated with SE. Participants and methods In this retrospective study, the data for 88 patients were collected from King Abdul Aziz University Hospital (KAUH) from 2006 to 2017. Patients were either infants (age ⩾ 28 days) or children (age ⩽ 14 years) and only those patients were selected who showed the symptoms of SE. Data collection sheet was used to record the required information. Analysis Data was recorded as mean value with its standard deviation. Statistical analysis was conducted by using SPSS, version 23 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). Statistical significance was set at p Results We found that the major causative factors behind SE were febrile seizure (30.5%), electrolytes imbalance (11.9%), hydrocephalus (8.5%), CNS infections (6.8%) and neoplasm (6.8%). SE cases originated due to other factors such as trauma, hemorrhagic stroke, intractable seizures, cerebro-vascular accidents etc. were also reported. However, the etiologies of 8 cases were not clearly established. SE was more prevalent in boys (67.8%) as compared to girls (32.2) and the majority of patients (64.3%) were non-Saudi. This study also elaborate that the majority of epilepsy types were generalized 56 (91.8%), and that 34 (58.6%) of the participants showed compliance to their epilepsy medications. Conclusion The author found that the most common causes of SE was febrile seizure, electrolytes imbalance and hydrocephalus, respectively. The frequency of SE is high in KSA. However, a nation-wide study is needed to detect other major causes in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for effective management and prevention. The compliance to AEDs is also requiring more attention and prompt family and patient education.