Seizure

The assessment of patients presenting with a first seizure (FS) is not trivial at all. This frequent clinical scenario [1] deserves an extremely careful clinical exploration and a systematic diagnostic algorithm to disentangle contributing factors, analyze individual predisposing variables, arrive at a reasonable first “working diagnosis”, and to provide the best possible counseling in a situation of huge uncertainty [2,3].

The assessment of patients presenting with a first seizure (FS) is not trivial at all. This frequent clinical scenario [1] deserves an extremely careful clinical exploration and a systematic diagnostic algorithm to disentangle contributing factors, analyze individual predisposing variables, arrive at a reasonable first “working diagnosis”, and to provide the best possible counseling in a situation of huge uncertainty [2,3].

New-onset refractory status epilepticus (NORSE) is a syndrome of prolonged seizures that typically develops in otherwise healthy, young individuals without a history of epilepsy or obvious initial cause. The term was first coined in a case series of 7 young women with prior good health who developed refractory status epilepticus (RSE) with an extensive, negative diagnostic work-up and poor outcome [1]. While the incidence of RSE is estimated between 9–43% of all episodes of SE, no such data exists for ...

Over the last 100 years, several epidemiological studies of mortality in epilepsy have been conducted worldwide. They have shown that people with epilepsy have a higher risk of premature death than the general population [1–19].

It has been estimated that more than 50 million people have epilepsy around the world of whom more than 4.7 million live in the World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Region [1]. Despite the fact that epilepsy affects both men and women equally [2], delivering healthcare services for women with epilepsy is often faced by many specific women’s health related challenges [3]. These challenges often pertain to selecting the appropriate antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) for women of childbearing age because some AEDs ...