Features of status epilepticus in neonates vs older children

Maria Roberta Cilio, MD, PhD, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium, provides insights into status epilepticus (SE) in neonates and how its presentation differs from that in older children and adults. She explains that the neonatal brain is very hyper-excitable and responds to many issues with seizures. Although these seizures are short, babies can go very quickly into SE. A challenge when treating neonates is that there is no previous history, as there would be with adults and older children, and a diagnosis is needed as fast and as precisely as possible. Seizures in neonates are always focal as the immature brain’s cortical and subcortical structures are not fully developed - they do not have the neuronal networks necessary for generalized tonic clonic seizures as is common in SE in adults. SE in neonates can triggered by an acute insult, for example, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, stroke, or infection, but for a significant minority, SE is the onset of neonatal epilepsy. This interview took place at the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Annual Meeting 2024 in Helsinki, Finland.
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