Status Epilepticus (SE) can be a life threatening event in an epileptic population. Accurate definition of SE was necessary for clinical and therapeutic purposes. The definition of SE changed over the years: in the revision (1981) by ILAE [1] SE is “a seizure” that “persists for a sufficient length of time or is repeated frequently enough that recovery between attacks does not occur”. The treatment of SE needs adequate and shared timing-measurements to plan therapeutic decisions. Four phases were currently proposed [2], for practical purposes: I) early phase, until the first 5-10 minutes; II) established SE, until 30 minutes; III) refractory SE (R-SE), if it does not stop despite stage I/II treatment with benzodiazepines plus one antiepileptic drug; IV) super-refractory SE (SR-SE), if it endures longer than 24 hours, despite treatment with anesthetics.
AGO