Challenges for Emergency Medical Services in Status Epilepticus Management

Untimely treatment in status epilepticus (SE) is independently associated with increased treatment resistance, morbidity, and mortality, but time to treatment is usually longer than suggested by guidelines in clinical practice. 1 Sánchez Fernández I. Abend N.S. Agadi S. et al. Time from convulsive status epilepticus onset to anticonvulsant administration in children. Neurology. 2015; 84: 2304-2311 Google Scholar SE most commonly begins outside the hospital, and treatments take longer when seizures start in this setting. 2 Sánchez Fernández I. Gaínza-Lein M. Abend N.S. et al. Factors associated with treatment delays in pediatric refractory convulsive status epilepticus. Neurology. 2018; 90: e1692-e1701 Google Scholar Therefore, we explored one of the potential barriers for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to provide optimized pediatric prehospital treatment in the United States: their protocols.