Pediatric Pharmacotherapy

tatus epilepticus is a serious and potentially life-threatening medical emergency that requires prompt intervention. The traditional definition of status epilepticus is any seizure lasting longer than thirty minutes regardless of whether consciousness is impaired, or recurrent seizures without an intervening period of consciousness between seizures. Clinically, the average seizure is less than two minutes; however, only 40% of seizures that last 10 to 29 minutes cease without treatment. Given that status epilepticus can be associated with significant morbidity and mortality, the definition has been expanded to include prolonged seizures lasting longer than five minutes in order to promote early and adequate intervention to reduce complications.