Status Epilepticus in Adults: A 6-Year Retrospective Study

Status epilepticus (SE) is one of the most common neurological emergencies with high mortality and morbidity. This study aims to determine the most common causes and outcomes of SE in adult patients from Fars Province in southern Iran. 134 patients with SE (either convulsive or non-convulsive), admitted to Namazi Hospital, were enrolled from January 2006 to February 2012. We designed a questionnaire to collect the patients'' demographics and disease characteristics and their outcomes according to Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS). Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software version 15. P-value<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Seventy patients were female and 64 were male with mean age of 42.97±19.66 years and 39.42±18.89 years old, respectively. Sixty-two patients (46.26%) had a history of epilepsy, and 72 patients (53.73%) had no history of epilepsy. Antiepileptic drugs (ADEs) withdrawal and cerebral infarction were the most common causes of SE in epileptics and non-epileptics, respectively. One hundred and twenty-three patients (91.8%) had generalized tonic-clonic SE. Thirty patients (22.4%) could return to work and 33 (24.6%) died during hospitalization. There was a significant relationship between mortality and age over 60 years (P<0.001), and mortality and cerebral infarction or anoxia (P= 0.022). ADEs withdrawal in the epileptic patients was the main cause of SE (28.40% of the total population and 62% of the epileptic patients) that can be prevented by patient and family education. This study showed that high mortality and morbidity were significantly related to the increasing age and etiology of SE.