Treatment Response in Pediatric Patients with Status Epilepticus: A Retrospective Observational Study from Saudi Arabia.

Objective

Investigate patient characteristics, treatments used, treatment response, and factors associated with outcomes when managing SE in a pediatric population admitted to the emergency department (ED).

Methods

This retrospective observational study included pediatric patients (age ≤ 18 years) with SE admitted to the ED at King Khalid University Hospital between 2015 and 2023. SE and refractory SE (RSE) were diagnosed according to the American Epilepsy Society (AES) definitions. The data included demographics, home medications, treatment sequences, medication dosing, and clinical outcomes. To assess appropriateness, the administered doses were compared with the AES standards for pediatric patients.

Results

The study included 487 episodes of SE. The mean patient age was 6.1 ± 4.1 years, and most patients were males (57.3%) with a history of epilepsy (74.1%). Benzodiazepines (BDZs) were administered first in 83.0% of cases, with a 10.9% success rate, whereas anti-seizure medications (ASMs) were administered first in 17.0% of cases, with a 66.3% success rate (p < 0.0001). Surprisingly, medications administered at appropriate doses during the first round were significantly less effective compared to those that were underdosed (18.2% vs. 28.4%; p = 0.0222), mainly because of poor response to BDZs. Younger patients and those who received BDZs on their first medication round had higher hospital admission rates.

Conclusions

ASMs were more effective than BDZs in managing pediatric patients with SE, regardless of the dosing precision. These findings point toward the adoption of personalized treatment strategies and may warrant early initiation of ASMs. National multicenter studies are needed to define a standardized pediatric SE protocol.