Epidemiology

The incidence of status epilepticus is 20/100,000 for Caucasians in industrialised countries (1).

• the incidence of SE has a bimodal distribution
  • the first peak seen during the first year of life while the second peak occuring after the age of 60 years
  • among adults, the highest risk of developing SE is seen in patients older than 60, with an incidence of 86 per 100,000 persons per year
  • among children, the highest incidence and prevalence of SE was observed in babies less than 12 months (1)

Status epilepticus occurs most frequently in patients without a prior diagnosis of epilepsy;

• 5% of adults with epilepsy will experience at least one episode of status epilepticus
• the common causes of status epilepticus in a patient with a prior diagnosis of epilepsy are:
  • drug withdrawal
  • intercurrent illness
  • metabolic disturbance
  • progression of the underlying disease

Mortality rates related to SE is around 7% in children while in adults it is around 28%. An increase in mortality is seen with age, duration of SE and the underlying cause (2).

Reference:

• (1) Knake S, Hamer HM, Rosenow F.Status epilepticus: a critical review. Epilepsy Behav. 2009;15(1):10-4
• (2) Manno EM. Status epilepticus. Current treatment stratergies. The Neurohospitalist  2011;1(1):23-31