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Purpose: Epilepsy is a common comorbidity in patients with glioblastoma, however, clinical data on status epilepticus (SE) in these patients is sparse. We aimed to investigate the risk factors associated with the occurrence and adverse outcomes of SE in glioblastoma patients., Methods: We retrospectively analysed electronic medical records of patients with de-novo glioblastoma treated at our institution between 01/2006 and 01/2020 and collected data on patient, tumour, and SE characteristics., Results: In the final cohort, 292/520 (56.2 %) patients developed seizures, with 48 (9.4 % of the entire cohort and 16.4 % of patients with epilepsy, PWE) experiencing SE at some point during the course of their disease. SE was the first symptom of the tumour in 6 cases (1.2 %) and the first manifestation of epilepsy in 18 PWE (6.2 %). Most SE episodes occurred postoperatively (n = 37, 77.1 %). SE occurrence in PWE was associated with postoperative seizures and drug-resistant epilepsy. Adverse outcome (in-house mortality or admission to palliative care, 10/48 patients, 20.8 %), was independently associated with higher status epilepticus severity score (STESS) and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), but not tumour progression. 32/48 SE patients (66.7 %) were successfully treated with first- and second-line agents, while escalation to third-line agents was successful in 6 (12.5 %) cases., Conclusion: Our data suggests a link between the occurrence of SE, postoperative seizures, and drug-resistant epilepsy. Despite the dismal oncological prognosis, SE was successfully treated in 79.2 % of the cases. Higher STESS and CCI were associated with adverse SE outcomes., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Outside of the work reported in this paper, H.M. Hamer has served on the scientific advisory boards of Arvelle, Bial, Corlieve, Eisai, GW, Novartis, Sandoz, UCB Pharma and Zogenix. He has been part of the speakers’ bureaus of or received unrestricted grants from Amgen, Ad-Tech, Alnylam, Bracco, Desitin, Eisai, GW, Nihon Kohden, Novartis, Pfizer, and UCB Pharma. The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Purpose: New antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are increasingly applied in second-line therapy of status epilepticus (SE). In our study, we analyzed the impact of the choice of second-line AEDs on the course and prognosis of SE., Methods: This retrospective single- center study used data of an 8 year cohort of SE in adults from 2007 to 2014. Based on the year of market introduction with a cutoff at 1990, we classified AEDs as traditional or new. Prescription pattern associated differences in prognosis were measured through univariate and multivariable analysis of 3 endpoints: occurrence of refractory SE (RSE), functional outcome in survivors to discharge (good: mRS at discharge <3 or identical to admission mRS; otherwise poor), and in-hospital mortality., Results: From 362 SE episodes during the study period, 222 episodes were included into the study, among those 150 episodes treated with new and 72 with traditional AEDs. Use of new AEDs increased during the study period. After adjustment for confounders, treatment with new AEDs was on the one hand associated with higher rate of RSE occurrence (OR 1.95, 95 % CI 1.05-3.62, p = 0.03), but, on the other hand, also with better functional outcome at discharge (OR 2.64, 95 % CI 1.16-6.00, p = 0.02), while it was not an independent predictor of in- hospital mortality (OR 0.88, 95 % CI 0.33-2.33, p = 0.80)., Conclusion: Our observation that new AEDs may be associated with a higher rate of RSE development and relatively better functional outcome when adjusted for the premorbid mRS needs confirmation in prospective studies., (Copyright © 2019 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Several scoring tools have been developed for the prognostication of outcome after status epilepticus (SE). In this study, we compared the performances of STESS (Status Epilepticus Severity Score), mSTESS (modified STESS), EMSE-EAL (Epidemiology-based Mortality Score in Status Epilepticus- Etiology, Age, Level of Consciousness) and END-IT (Encephalitis-NCSE-Diazepam resistance-Image abnormalities-Tracheal intubation) in predicting in-hospital mortality after SE., Method: Data collected retrospectively from a cohort of 287 patients with SE were used to calculate STESS, mSTESS, EMSE-EAL, and END-IT scores. The differences between the scores' performances were determined by means of area under the ROC curve (AUC) comparisons and McNemar testing., Results: The in-hospital mortality rate was 11.8%. The AUC of STESS (0.628; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.529-0.727) was similar to that of mSTESS (0.620; 95% CI, 0.510-0.731), EMSE-EAL (0.556; 95% CI, 0.446-0.665), and END-IT (0.659; 95% CI, 0.550-0.768; p > .05 for each comparison) in predicting in-hospital mortality. STESS with a cutoff of 3 was found to have lowest specificity and number of correctly classified episodes. EMSE-EAL with a cutoff at 40 had highest specificity and showed a trend towards more correctly classified episodes while sensitivity tended to be low. END-IT with a cutoff of 3 had the most balanced sensitivity-specificity ratio., Conclusions: EMSE-EAL is as easy to calculate as STESS and tended towards higher diagnostic accuracy. Adding information on premorbid functional status to STESS did not enhance outcome prediction. END-IT was not superior to other scores in prediction of in-hospital mortality despite including information of diagnostic work-up and response to initial treatment., (Copyright © 2018 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Super-refractory status epilepticus (SRSE) represents a challenging medical condition with high morbidity and mortality. In this study, we aimed to establish variables related to SRSE development and outcome., Methods: We retrospectively screened our databases for refractory SE (RSE) and SRSE episodes between January 2001 and January 2015. Baseline demographics, SE characteristics, and variables reflecting the clinical course were compared in order to identify factors independently associated with SRSE occurrence. Within the SRSE cohort, predictors of in-hospital mortality as well as good functional outcome in survivors to discharge were established through univariate and multivariable analyses., Results: A total of 131 episodes were included, among those 46 (35.1%) meeting the criteria of SRSE. Comparison of RSE and SRSE episodes revealed a lower premorbid mRS score (odds ratio (OR) per mRS point, 0.769; p=0.039) and non-convulsive SE (NCSE) in coma (OR, 4.216; p=0.008) as independent predictors of SRSE. SRSE in-hospital mortality was associated with age (OR, 1.091 per increasing year; p=0.020) and worse premorbid functional status (OR, 1.938 per mRS point; p=0.044). Good functional outcome in survivors was independently related to shorter SRSE duration (OR, 0.714 per day; p=0.038)., Conclusion: Better premorbid functional status and NCSE in coma as worst seizure type indicate a role of acute underlying etiologies in the development of SRSE. In-hospital mortality in SRSE is determined by nonmodifiable factors, while functional outcome in survivors depends on seizure duration underscoring the need of achieving rapid seizure termination., (Copyright © 2017 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess factors associated with the use of topiramate (TPM) in refractory status epilepticus (RSE)., Methods: We retrospectively reviewed RSE episodes over a 12-year period. Episodes treated with and without TPM were compared in terms of demographics, RSE characteristics, clinical course, and outcome in univariate and multivariate analyses. Subgroups defined by type of RSE were studied separately. Functional outcome was assessed with the modified Rankin Scale., Results: Among 71 episodes, 17 (23.9%) were treated with TPM and seizure control was achieved in all of these. The results of unadjusted comparisons suggested a use of TPM in younger and healthier patients who received more perseverant treatment indicated by a higher number of antiepileptic drugs applied. In multivariate analysis adjusting for RSE duration, however, these associations lost significance. Furthermore, TPM was not a predictor of successful RSE termination in neither the overall cohort, nor in the subgroup of complex-partial RSE., Conclusion: After multivariate adjustment, no significant differences were observed between episodes treated with and without TPM in baseline characteristics, treatment, and outcome. Regarding the latter, this study does therefore not yield evidence for a particular efficacy of TPM in RSE., (Copyright © 2016 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)