title: Clinical Profile of Status epilepticus (SE) in Children in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Bihar.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Status epilepticus (SE) is a common, life threatening neurologic disorder that is essentially an acute, prolonged epileptic crisis. SE can represent an exacerbation of a pre-existing seizure disorder, the initial manifestation of a seizure disorder, or an insult other than a seizure disorder.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To study the aetiology, clinical profile, and outcome of SE in pediatric age group. Setting and study design: Prospective study at a tertiary care medical college hospital in Bihar, India.
  
  
  METHODS
  Study was carried out for a period of one year (from April 2008 to March 2009). Seventy patients of SE in the age group of six month to 12 years were included in the study. Clinical history, general and systemic examination and relevant investigations along with pretested questionnaire were used to categorise different variables. Independent t-test was used for continuous variables and chi-square test for categorical variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean age for the study population was found to be 5.94 years (SD=3.152). Preponderance of male (60%) over female (40%) was observed. Aetiology included Idiopathic (27.14%), remote symptomatic (20%), acute symptomatic (47.14%), febrile (2.86%) and progressive encephalopathy (2.86%) groups. Generalised tonic clonic convulsion (GTC) convulsion was observed in 91.4% of SE patients while 8.6% had partial SE. Eighteen patients (25.7%) had prior history of convulsion whereas 52 patients (74.3%) presented with SE as first episode of convulsion. In our study, mortality rate was found to be 31.4% and acute symptomatic causes were responsible for most of the deaths.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SE is a severe life threatening emergency with substantial morbidity and mortality. Patients with younger age and male sex are slightly more vulnerable to develop SE. Longer duration of SE and acute symptomatic aetiologies are independent predictors for poor outcome.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatrics, SGRR Institute of Medical and Health Sciences , Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India .
authors.forename: Mritunjay
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, SGRR Institute of Medical and Health Sciences , Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India .
authors.forename: Rashmi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kumari
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Patna Medical College and Hospital , Patna, Bihar, India .
authors.forename: Nigam Prakash
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Narain
keywords: Aetiology; Children; Mortality; Status epilepticus