Emergency medicine doctors now have a better way to treat severe epileptic seizures in children, thanks to a New Zealand-Australian study.
Prolonged epileptic seizures are the most common neurological emergency in children seen by hospitals. The seizures are potentially fatal: up to five percent of affected children die, and a third suffer long-term complications from brain damage. Crucially, the longer the seizure, the greater the chance of long-term complications.
The study – which will change management of this condition internationally – was published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet. It was led by Professor Stuart Dalziel from the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland and Starship Children’s Hospital, and the senior author was Professor Franz Babl at Melbourne’s Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.