Successful treatment of drug-resistant status epilepticus in an adult patient with Mowat-Wilson syndrome: A case report

Mowat-Wilson syndrome (MWS) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by intellectual disability, distinctive facial features, epilepsy, and multiple anomalies caused by heterozygous loss-of-function mutations in the zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox-2 gene (ZEB2). Treatment choice is very important as patients with MWS because patients sometimes develop drug-resistant epilepsy. Here, we report the case of a 45-year-old male patient with MWS who developed drug-resistant status epilepticus after a 26-years seizure-free period while taking multiple anti-seizure medications. He showed a characteristic magnetic resonance imaging finding with a focal lesion in his left thalamic pulvinar nucleus, a finding not previously reported in status epilepticus with MWS. We succeeded in controlling seizures in the patient after trying multiple new antiseizure drug combinations. These findings indicate that patients with MWS may develop drug-resistant status epilepticus with age, even after a long-term seizure-free period, which can be managed with anti-seizure medication. Therefore, careful monitoring of seizures is important for the treatment of people with MWS, even in patients who have not experienced seizures for a long time.