Use of Continuous EEG Monitoring in Children Presenting With Encephalopathy Following Convulsive Status Epilepticus

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asri Yuliati ◽  
Amanda R. B. Weber
1999 ◽  
Vol 91 (5) ◽  
pp. 750-760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul M. Vespa ◽  
Marc R. Nuwer ◽  
Valeriy Nenov ◽  
Elisabeth Ronne-Engstrom ◽  
David A. Hovda ◽  
...  

Object. The early pathophysiological features of traumatic brain injury observed in the intensive care unit (ICU) have been described in terms of altered cerebral blood flow, altered brain metabolism, and neurochemical excitotoxicity. Seizures occur in animal models of brain injury and in human brain injury. Previous studies of posttraumatic seizures in humans have been based principally on clinical observations without a systematic approach to electroencephalographic (EEG) recording of seizures. The purpose of this study was to determine prospectively the incidence of convulsive and nonconvulsive seizures by using continuous EEG monitoring in patients in the ICU during the initial 14 days postinjury.Methods. Ninety-four patients with moderate-to-severe brain injuries underwent continuous EEG monitoring beginning at admission to the ICU (mean delay 9.6 ± 5.4 hours) and extending up to 14 days postinjury. Convulsive and nonconvulsive seizures occurred in 21 (22%) of the 94 patients, with six of them displaying status epilepticus. In more than half of the patients (52%) the seizures were nonconvulsive and were diagnosed on the basis of EEG studies alone. All six patients with status epilepticus died, compared with a mortality rate of 24% (18 of 73) in the nonseizure group (p < 0.001). The patients with status epilepticus had a shorter mean length of stay (9.14 ± 5.9 days compared with 14 ± 9 days [t-test, p < 0.03]). Seizures occurred despite initiation of prophylactic phenytoin on admission to the emergency room, with maintenance at mean levels of 16.6 ± 2.8 mg/dl. No differences in key prognostic factors (such as the Glasgow Coma Scale score, early hypoxemia, early hypotension, or 1-month Glasgow Outcome Scale score) were found between the patients with seizures and those without.Conclusions. Seizures occur in more than one in five patients during the 1st week after moderate-to-severe brain injury and may play a role in the pathobiological conditions associated with brain injury.


F1000Research ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 663
Author(s):  
Haythum O. Tayeb

Background: The practice of continuous EEG monitoring (CEEG) in the intensive care unit (ICU) has spread over the past decade. Building an effective ICU CEEG program demands adequate EEG equipment and human resources. This may not be available in developing healthcare systems. This study sought to shed light on the real-life utility of CEEG at a tertiary healthcare center in the developing healthcare system of Saudi Arabia,. Methods: This is a retrospective review of CEEG findings, along with mortality and duration of hospitalization of patients who had CEEG during a 12-month period at the adult ICU at the King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Results: A total of 202 CEEG records were identified. A total of 52 patients had non-convulsive seizures (NCS); 10 clearly fulfilled criteria for non-convulsive status epilepticus. There were 120 patients that had clinical seizures upon presentation. Among them, 36 (30%) had NCS on EEG. The proportion of patients who were deceased at 60 days was higher in patients with NCS than those who didn’t have NCS (42% vs 27%, χ2 = 4.4, df=2, p=0.03). The proportion with long hospitalization was higher in those who had periodic or rhythmic CEEG patterns (33.3% vs 28.1%, χ2 = 8.02, df=2, p=0.02) but there was no significant relationship with mortality at 60 days. Conclusion: This study demonstrates a real-world experience from a tertiary care center in Saudi Arabia, a developing healthcare system. Findings are consistent with prior experience that ICU CEEG is effective in detecting potentially harmful subclinical patterns, supporting the need to develop ICU CEEG programs. However, the incurred excesses in morbidity and mortality associated with CEEG patterns were relatively modest. Further studies are needed to delineate how the practice of CEEG may be developed to provide meaningful data to clinicians with regards to patient outcomes.


F1000Research ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 663
Author(s):  
Haythum O. Tayeb

Background: The practice of continuous EEG monitoring (CEEG) in the intensive care unit (ICU) has been spreading over the past decade. Building an effective ICU CEEG program with sufficient quality demands adequate EEG equipment and significant human resources. While this is available in large tertiary care centers where the practice of CEEG has developed, it may not be available in developing healthcare systems. This study sought to provide data generated from a CEEG program in the adult ICU at a tertiary healthcare center in Saudi Arabia, shedding light on the real-life utility of CEEG in a developing healthcare system. Methods: This is a retrospective review of CEEG findings, along with mortality and duration of hospitalization of patients who had CEEG during a 12-month period at the adult ICU at the King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Results: A total of 202 CEEG records were identified. A total of 52 patients had non-convulsive seizures (NCS); 10 clearly fulfilled criteria for non-convulsive status epilepticus. There were 120 patients that had clinical seizures upon presentation. Among them, 36 (30%) had NCS on EEG. The proportion of patients who were deceased at 60 days was higher in patients who had NCS (42%) than those who didn’t (26%, χ2  (2, n=200)= 4.4, p=0.03). The duration of hospital stay was longer for those who had periodic or rhythmic CEEG patterns (χ2 (2, n=200)= 7.6, p=0.02) but there was no significant relationship with mortality at 60 days. Conclusion: This study demonstrates a real-world experience from a tertiary care center in Saudi Arabia, a developing healthcare system. Findings are consistent with prior experience with ICU CEEG, demonstrating that finding ictal, rhythmic or periodic patterns is associated with morbidity and mortality. Further studies are needed to demonstrate how the practice of CEEG may alter patient outcomes.


Author(s):  
Frank W Drislane ◽  
Susan T Herman ◽  
Peter W Kaplan

The clinical presentation and encephalographic (EEG) findings of nonconvulsive status epilepticus (NCSE) can be complicated, making diagnosis difficult. There are generalized (e.g., absence status) and focal (e.g., aphasic status, complex partial status) forms. Some patients are responsive but have cognitive or other neurologic deficits; others are less responsive or even comatose. Increasingly, the diagnosis of NCSE is considered in intensive care unit patients. Here, without clinical signs of seizures such as convulsions, EEG is critical in diagnosis, but there is uncertainty about which EEG patterns represent seizures and which clinical situations and EEG patterns warrant aggressive treatment. Antiseizure medications are tailored to the NCSE type and the clinical condition. Treatment is often easier for NCSE, and the outcome better, than for convulsive SE, but this is not always true for critically ill patients with NCSE in the ICU, for whom continuous EEG monitoring is often crucial for diagnosis and management.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document