Predictors of high functional disability and mortality at 3 months in patients with status epilepticus

There are differences in epidemiology, etiology, and outcome in status epilepticus (SE) between developing and developed countries, which limits generalizability. We evaluated factors related to outcome at 3 months in SE patients in a developing country- Ecuador.

Retrospective analysis of a prospectively collected dataset of patients treated for SE at a single hospital over 4 years, recording on 107 patients and 109 episodes, including clinical, demographic, and prognosis assessments.

Hospital mortality was 33%, and 38% at 3 months. Glasgow Coma Scale score pretreatment ≤12 (odds ratio = 7.7), Charlson Index of comorbidities ≥3 (odds ratio = 5.6) and brain lesion (odds ratio = 6.4) predicted high disability. History of epilepsy was associated with favorable outcome in general, and showed a positive impact on survival rates (odds ratio = 0.3), while Glasgow Coma Scale scores pretreatment ≤12 (odds ratio = 4.1) and refractory SE (odds ratio = 2.1) were associated with reduced survival rates. Acute symptomatic etiology was the most common cause of SE (58%). Etiologies with structural brain lesion showed a significantly lower survival rate (Log ranks = 0.04 and 0.003) compared to other groups.

Mortality rate at 3 months for SE patients was high. Glasgow Coma Scale, Charlson Index, and brain lesions were associated with unfavorable outcome, including mortality. Overall, the results were similar to those reported in more developed countries, but some differences, including overall higher mortality, prevalence of nonconvulsive SE, and lack of association of age with outcome were evident.