Emergency Seizure Care in Adults with Known Epilepsy

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• 作者：Spitz ; Mark C. ; Towbin ; John A. ; Honigman ; Benjamin ; Shantz ; Dianne
• 关键词：Emergency care ; Emergency medical services ; Emergency medicine ; Epilepsy ; Seizures
• 刊名：Journal of Epilepsy
• 出版年：1996
• 出版时间：August, 1996
• 年：1996
• 卷：9
• 期：3
• 页码：159-164
• 全文大小：601 K

文摘

We describe the prehospital and emergency department care provided to adults with known epilepsy in an attempt to determine whether such patients required prehospital transportation and to describe the laboratory and radiographic studies obtained. One hundred consecutive emergency department visits for seizures or seizure-related problems of known epileptics were analyzed by chart review. These visits represented 75 different patients, six leading to hospital admission and 16 involving seizure-related injuries. Some tests and treatments were clearly useful, whereas others may have been unnecessary; computed tomography (CT) scans were performed in eight patients because of a secondary head injury or unexplained neurological impairment. Subdural hematomas were detected in two. Antiepileptic drug (AED) levels were measured in 24 patients with admitted noncompliance. Twenty-three had predictably low levels. Twenty transports were considered potentially unnecessary by Epilepsy Foundation of America (EFA) guidelines (known epilepsy, consciousness returns without further incident, no signs of injury, physical distress, or pregnancy). Only one patient required special care; she had a second seizure on arrival at the emergency department and was admitted to the observation unit.