Status epilepticus in infants and young children treated with parenteral diazepam.

Status epilepticus, meaning either continuous convulsions with unconsciousness or serial epileptic attacks, between which there is no return to consciousness, is always a serious and potentially fatal emergency. It is of special importance in paediatrics, for infants and young children have a lower convulsive theshold than adults, and recent work (Ounsted, Lindsay, and Norman, 1966) has indicated a possible relation between infantile status epilepticus and the subsequent development of temporal lobe epilepsy. The use of parenteral diazepam in the treatment of status epilepticus, serial epilepsy, or prolonged seizure activity has been described in several communications, mostly in adults (Naquet et al., 1965; Gastaut et al., 1965; J. C. Bowe, 1965, personal communication; Bowe, 1968; Lombroso, 1966; Gordon, 1966; Prensky et al., 1967; Wilson, 1968; Parsonage and Norris, 1967; Bell, 1969), and we report here the results of treatment with this drug parenterally in 37 infants and young children during the period from September 1965 to November 1968.