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Status Epilepticus

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Evaluating a drug study (Valproate versus diazepam for generalized convulsive status epilepticus).
Ethical:
This study was ethical approved by the Ethics Committee of Xuanwu Hospital at the Capital Medical University in Beijing, China. The authors disclosed no conflict of interest. The funding source was funded by Capital Medical University’s foundation.
Inform consent was obtained from the legal representatives of the patients that were admitted to the intensive care unit. The only patients that were allowed to enroll were individuals who failed first-line (intravenous injection of diazepam) anticonvulsants. In the United States, lorazepam is considered the first-line drug for status epilepticus, but in China lorazepam is not available. …show more content…

The purpose of this study was to find another alternative medication to be used in managing status epilepticus in a hospital setting. This study compared intravenous (IV) valproate and diazepam infusion in patients with status epilepticus (SE). The main goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of IV valproate and continuous diazepam infusion as second-line anticonvulsants. Side effects were also evaluated in this study. The major goal from this study was to maintain and terminate the status epilepticus …show more content…

Efficacy is based on the drug being equally effective as other medications in treating SE. Keeping the patient safe and monitoring adverse side effects are essential when administering anticonvulsant drug therapy.
Experimental methods:
This study design was an open-label randomized controlled trial. A total of 66 patients enrolled in this study with a mean age of 41 years old that were admitted in the intensive care unit from 2007 to 2010. The mean age was between 40.8 to 41.4 between both groups. Of the 66 participants there were 36 men and 30 women that participated in this study. The seizure etiology included epilepsy related, virus encephalitis, cerebrovascular disease, and other. The duration of seizures varied from under four hours to over 24 hours.
The inclusion criteria included patients (15 years of age or older) with SE lasting five minutes of continuous seizures or two or more discrete seizures with incomplete recovery of consciousness. The participants that were allowed to enroll were individuals that failed first-line therapy of intravenous injection of diazepam (0.2 mg/kg) that was given twice with ten minute

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