Treatment of status epilepticus with intravenous clonazepam

1. Intravenous clonazepam was investigated in an open trial conducted in 24 patients suffering from status epilepticus. 2. The administration of 1-2 mg clonazepam resulted in the complete control of 7/7 Petit Mal, 7/14 Grand Mal and 2/3 partial complex cases. 3. The mean time to obtain clinical control of seizures after injection was 1.75 min. In all successfully treated cases normalization or improvement of the post-ictal EEG tracing was observed. 4. Vital signs measured before and immediately after clonazepam injections showed no clinically significant changes in blood pressure, heart rate or respiration. Side effects consisted exclusively of transient mild to moderate drowsiness in 40% of patients. 5. These results indicate that intravenous clonazepam is rapidly effective and safe in the treatment of Petit Mal status and in certain cases of Grand Mal and partial complex status epilepticus. This agent therefore represents a useful alternative to diazepam in the treatment of status epilepticus.