Hypothermia for Neuroprotection in Convulsive Status Epilepticus.

Background: Convulsive status epilepticus often results in permanent neurologic impairment. We evaluated the effect of induced hypothermia on neurologic outcomes in patients with convulsive status epilepticus.

Methods: In a multicenter trial, we randomly assigned 270 critically ill patients with convulsive status epilepticus who were receiving mechanical ventilation to hypothermia (32 to 34°C for 24 hours) in addition to standard care or to standard care alone; 268 patients were included in the analysis.

Artery of Percheron infarction as an unusual cause of coma: three cases and literature review.

Objective: Stroke due to occlusion of the artery of Percheron (AOP), an uncommon anatomic variant supplying the bilateral medial thalami, may raise diagnostic challenges and cause life-threatening symptoms. Our objective here was to detail the features and outcomes in three patients who required intensive care unit (ICU) admission and to review the relevant literature.

Methods: Description of three cases and literature review based on a 1973-2013 PubMed search.

Prognostic value of electrographic postanoxic status epilepticus in comatose cardiac-arrest survivors in the therapeutic hypothermia era.

Background: The independent prognostic significance of postanoxic status epilepticus (PSE) has not been evaluated prospectively since the introduction of therapeutic hypothermia. We studied 1-year functional outcomes and their determinants in comatose survivors of cardiac arrest (CA), with special attention to PSE.

Methods: 106 comatose CA survivors admitted to the intensive care unit in 2005-2010 were included in a prospective observational study.