Etiology and short-term outcome of children with convulsive status epilepticus admitted to Tabriz Children’s Hospitals, Iran

Introduction: Status epilepticus (SE) are associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality, yet early diagnosis and treatment will improve patients’ outcome. This study was carried out to determine etiology, and early-outcome of our overall management of pediatric SE in patients admitted to Tabriz Children’s Hospital (Tabriz, Iran).
Methods: In this cross-sectional and analytical study from January 2013 to January 2014, 43 patients with SE under the age of 15 years were enrolled. Demographic characteristics, etiology and outcome of every patient were recorded. SPSS for Windows software was used for statistical analysis. P-value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant in all comparisons.
Results: The highest rate of SE was happened in age-subgroup of 1-5 years. The two most common causes of SE in our patients were remote symptomatic (55.8%) and prolonged febrile convulsions (20.9%). Refractory SE (RSE) was detected in 15 (34.8%) patients. Poor early-outcome was shown in 8 (18.6%) patients (4 mortalities and 4 morbidities) of whom 5 (33.3%) had RSE, and 3 (10.7%) from SE group (P = 0.01). Young age was a risk factor for mortality (P = 0.01). Recurrent SE was occurred in 3 (7.0%) of patients.
Conclusion: Early-outcome of SE in children is mainly determined by age and underlying disorder.