School of Medicine Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-2019
Abstract
Refractory seizures or status epilepticus (RS/SE) continues to be a challenge in the inpatient setting. Failure to abort a seizure with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) may lead to intubation and treatment with general anesthesia exposing patients to complications, extending hospitalization, and increasing the cost of care. Studies have shown a key role of inflammatory mediators in seizure generation and termination. We describe 4 patients with RS/SE that was aborted when dexamethasone was added to conventional AEDs: a 61-year-old female with temporal lobe epilepsy who presented with delirium, nonconvulsive status epilepticus, and oculomyoclonic status; a 56-year-old female with history of traumatic left frontal lobe hemorrhage who developed right face and hand epilepsia partialis continua followed by refractory focal clonic seizures; a 51-year-old male with history of traumatic intracranial hemorrhage who exhibited left-sided epilepsia partialis continua; and a 75-year-old female with history of breast cancer who manifested nonconvulsive status epilepticus and refractory focal clonic seizures. All patients continued experiencing RS/SE despite first- and second-line therapy, and one patient continued to experience RS/SE despite third-line therapy. Failure to abort RS/SE with conventional therapy motivated us to administer intravenous dexamethasone. A 10-mg load was given (except in one patient) followed by 4.0- 5.2 mg q6h. All clinical and electrographic seizures stopped 3-4 days after starting dexamethasone. When dexamethasone was discontinued 1-3 days after seizures stopped, all patients remained seizure-free on 2-3 AEDs. The cessation of RS/SE when dexamethasone was added to conventional antiseizure therapy suggests that inflammatory processes are involved in the pathogenesis of RS/SE.
Recommended Citation
Ramos, A. B., Cruz, R. A., Villemarette-Pittman, N. R., Olejniczak, P. W., & Mader, E. C., Jr (2019). Dexamethasone as Abortive Treatment for Refractory Seizures or Status Epilepticus in the Inpatient Setting. Journal of investigative medicine high impact case reports, 7, 2324709619848816. https://doi.org/10.1177/2324709619848816
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Journal of investigative medicine high impact case reports
DOI
10.1177/2324709619848816
Academic Level
faculty
Mentor/PI Department
Neurology
Comments
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