[Clinical practice guidelines of the Andalusian Epilepsy Society on prophylaxis and treatment of acute symptomatic epileptic seizures].
OBJECTIVE
Antiepileptic drugs (AED) have traditionally been used empirically to prevent the presentation of epileptic seizures in patients with acute brain disorders during the early or late phase. However, AED are not free of serious drawbacks, which means that their use should be based on solid scientific foundations. Our aim is to produce a set of practice guidelines based on explicit evidence about when prophylactic treatment with AED is indicated and the length of time it should be continued in acute symptomatic seizures (ASS).


METHODS
A selective search for quality scientific information on the subject was conducted on PubMed-Medline, Tripdatabase and the Biblioteca Cochrane Plus. The authors discussed and analysed the references that were selected and any recommendations that could be drawn from them were collected. A total of 14 primary documents and eight practice guidelines, protocols or experts' recommendations were identified. Our recommendations were explicitly included at the end of the document.


CONCLUSIONS
The Andalusian Epilepsy Society makes the following recommendations: a) AED must only be used for the primary prevention of ASS in severe traumatic brain injury and as secondary prevention of new ASS due to other causes of acute brain damage; b) duration of treatment of ASS must not exceed the time needed to resolve the cause that gave rise to them; and c) benzodiazepines are the preferred drugs for use in the treatment of ASS due to alcohol withdrawal and magnesium sulphate for the ASS of eclampsia.
Mercadé-Cerdá
J M
JM
Hospital Universitario Carlos Haya, Malaga, España.
Gascón-Jiménez
F J
FJ
Ramos-Lizana
J
J
Sánchez-Alvarez
J C
JC
Serrano-Castro
P J
PJ
D000208:Acute Disease; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans