title: Epilepsy emergencies: diagnosis and management.
abstract: Seizures and status epilepticus are epilepsy emergencies with high morbidity and mortality. Early treatment is crucial, and the identification of an underlying etiology informs both continued treatment and prognosis. Many patients have underdiagnosed nonconvulsive seizures or nonconvulsive status epilepticus, particularly the comatose or critically ill. Timely EEG can be useful for diagnosis, management, optimizing treatment response, and determining prognosis in these patients. Refractory conditions can be quite complicated with limited evidence-based guidance, but treatment should not be restricted by nihilism even in the most prolonged cases, especially if there is not widespread irreversible brain injury.
authors.affiliation: Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, Neurological Institute of New York, Columbia University Medical Center, 710 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Brandon
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Foreman
authors.forename: Lawrence J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Hirsch
mesh_terms: D003128:Coma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D016638:Critical Illness; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004630:Emergencies; D004635:Emergency Medicine; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis; D012640:Seizures / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D013226:Status Epilepticus / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*