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Aetiology

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Some causes of status epilepticus are as follows

  • acute conditions
    • metabolic disturbances - electrolyte abnormalities, hypoglycemia, renal failure
    • sepsis
    • CNS infections - meneigitis, encephalitis
    • stroke - ischemic stroke, intracerebral or subarachnoid heamorahge
    • head trauma (with or without epidural or subdural haematoma)
    • drugs
      • drug toxicity
      • withdrawal from opioid, benzodiazepine, barbiturate or alcohol
      • non compliance with AED’s
    • hypoxia, cardiac arrest
  • chronic conditions
    • preexisting epilepsy - breakthrough seizures or discontinuation of AED’s
    • CNS tumor
    • chronic ethanol abuse in setting of ethanol intoxication or withdrawal

In children:

  • acute symptomatic SE is more common
  • the most frequent cause of SE is prolonged febrile seizures
  • other frequent causes of SE include - CNS infections, especially bacterial meningitis, inborn errors of metabolism (1).

Reference:

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