THERAPEUTIC FOCUS
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a very common neurological disorder affecting approximately 0.5% of the population and is characterized by seizures, which may vary from the briefest lapses of attention to muscle jerks to severe and prolonged convulsions. They may also vary in frequency, from less than one a year to several per day.
A seizure emergency is a prolonged seizure or continuous state of frequently occurring seizures. One common type of seizure emergency is called status epilepticus (SE). SE may be defined as a prolonged seizure lasting anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes. SE is also defined by a series of repeated seizures without the return of consciousness in between seizures. SE has an annual incidence estimated at approximately 150,000 cases in the United States alone with approximately 40,000 deaths per year.
Another type of seizure emergency is acute repetitive seizures (ARS), which is a bout or cluster of seizures over a short period of time in which the patient regains consciousness between seizures. It is estimated that up to 400,000 people in the United States suffer from ARS.
