Literature Review

Mortality Risk for Status Epilepticus Varies With Epilepsy Status

Patients without prior epilepsy are more likely to die


 

Status epilepticus (SE) significantly increases the all-cause mortality according to a review of more than 82,000 hospitalizations and emergency-department visits. Within this large group were 1,296 patients who presented with only SE, 2,136 patients who had post-epilepsy SE, and nearly 79,000 cases of epilepsy only, which served as controls. Angela M. Malek and associates found a mortality rate of 24.9% among SE only cases, compared with 20% in controls (hazard ratio 1.61) after adjustment for demographic and clinical confounding variables. Patients who presented with post-epilepsy SE had a mortality rate of 29.2% but a hazard ratio of only 1.16.

Malek AM, Wilson DA, Martz GU, et al. Mortality following status epilepticus in persons with and without epilepsy. Seizure. 2016;42:7-13.

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