Non-convulsive
Status Epilepticus
Brežný I., Buranová D., Kollár B., Varsik P., Kondáš M., Činčurová E.
I. neurologická klinika FN a LF UK, Bratislava Klinika detskej psychiatrie DFN, Bratislava |
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Summary:
Tonic-clonic status epilepticus is defined as toniclonic epileptic seizure which persists for more than
30 minutes or is repeated for more than 30 minutes without the patient gaining consciousness. It is not
a problem to diagnose convulsive status epilepticus. In general all types of epilepti c seizures (sensitive
and senzoric simplex partial seizures, complex partial seizures, absency, seizures of apnoe, etc.) can be
prolonged, can persist for minutes, hours and also for several days. At first sight these epileptic statuses
may not be recognised as epileptic ones. According to Kaplan, the clinical characteristi cs of non-convulsive status epilepticus are sudden behavioral or cognitive changes which differ from the previous
state and persist for longer than 30 minutes with epileptic (paroxysmal) signs on the EEG. These
symptoms are often diagnosed as psychogenic and patients are not hospitalised in neurologic departments, but very often in psychiatric or general medicine departments. These symptoms are very often
misdiagnosed, they are not adequately treated and it is very important to know that they can be
combined with symptoms of other diseases. The diagnosis in these cases can be confirmed only by EEG.
Four cases of non-convulsive status epilepticus are reported in this work.
Key words:
non-convulsive status epilepticus, EEG
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