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As soon as a parent or guardian (legal representative) is located, that person will be asked to give permission for the patient to continue in the study. These are frequently called emergency studies and are approved under federal rules that govern research. For that reason, the patient may be enrolled in the study without the health care giver obtaining such consent. They include phenytoin (fPHT), valproic acid (VPA), and levetiracetam (LVT).īecause a patient having a seizure that will not stop cannot give consent at the time he or she is enrolled in the study and because the unending seizure must be treated quickly, there is often not enough time to obtain consent from his or her mother, father or guardian, particularly if that person is not present at the hospital. Later, they will study the effects of the medicine to determine which of the three is most effective and safe in treating status epilepticus.Īll three drugs in the study are commonly used in emergency medicine departments and approved by the U.S. If the seizure does not resolve, doctors will give them one of the three medications. Benzodiazepines, usually prescribed short-term for anxiety and insomnia, are used in the treatment of status epilepticus.
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Status epilepticus is a life-threatening condition defined as a seizure lasting longer than five minutes that does not stop on its own and from which the patient does not wake.Īll patients who come to the emergency department with this condition will receive a benzodiazepine first. Daniel Rubalcava, assistant professor of pediatrics - emergency medicine at Baylor and Texas Children's Hospital, and the principal investigator for this study at Baylor/Texas Children's. "There are no definitive studies that show which treatment is most effective in stopping status epilepticus or prolonged seizure episodes," said Dr. The study is part of the Established Status Epilepticus Treatment Trial, a multi-center network funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
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Patients coming into the Texas Children's Hospital emergency center with prolonged seizures that are not controlled after a full dose of benzodiazepines will be enrolled in the emergency research under a special emergency protocol that does not require immediate informed consent. Status epilepticus means prolonged seizures that are not controlled by usual treatment with drugs called benzodiazepines. 1, 2015 - A study to determine which of three drugs commonly used to treat a condition called status epilepticus is most effective begins this month under the direction of Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospitalpediatric emergency medicine physicians.
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