Status Epilepticus

The recent explosive growth in the study of status epilepticus (SE), an epileptic seizure that threatens to produce new seizures, has shown that SE is not a single disease, but arises from different substrates of the brain and comprises multifaceted illnesses. In Status Epilepticus: A Clinical Perspective, a panel of senior clinicians critically reviews the many forms of SE, their causes, manifestations, methods of diagnosis, and appropriate treatments. The authors emphasize the disease as encountered by the clinician in the field and the importance of correct recognition and diagnosis. They provide for each form of SE the underlying genetic, biological, and developmental background, the pathophysiological processes, as well as the precipitating factors that lead to an episode. For the difficult problem of diagnosing nonconvulsive SE, they offer detailed syndrome classifications, differential diagnoses, descriptions of seizure imitators, notes on unusual behavioral and cognitive manifestations, and carefully delineated clinical presentations. Additional highlights include striking EEG reproductions that provide classic examples of patients in SE, SE in very young children and neonates, and an analysis of the cellular physiology and processes occurring during SE. Comprehensive and up-to-date, Status Epilepticus: A Clinical Perspective offers the neurologic clinician an authoritative review of the diagnosis and treatment of the many forms of this most serious and challenging acute nervous system disorder.