Jul 10, 2008 5:46 pm US/Eastern
Doctors Launch Study To Better Treat Seizures
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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Baltimore doctors have launched a study to determine the most effective form of treatment for sufferers of prolonged seizures.
Every year up to 60,000 people have prolonged seizures that in some cases can last for several hours.
Healthwatch reporter Kellye Lynn reports Baltimore doctors have launched a study to determine the most effective form of treatment.
The formal name is status epilepticus. They are prolonged seizures combined with convulsions.
When it happens, patients are often rushed to the emergency room which is why local ER doctors want to find the best possible treatment.
Five years ago, in a middle school classroom, life dramatically changed for Maddie Clifton.
"I remember getting sick and everyone going, 'oh my gosh, oh my gosh,'" said Maddie.
She threw up, had a throbbing headache and was in a fog. A disoriented Maddie made her way down the school hallway, eventually winding up at the nurse's office.
That's when her mom arrived.
"She was staring to the right. I couldn't move her head, she couldn't speak. I didn't know where she was there," said Kim Clifton, Maddie's mother.
What the Cliftons didn't know then was that Maddie was experiencing status epilepticus.
"Fits or convulsions or seizures that are out of control and what I mean by that is, these are fits that last more than five minutes," said Dr. Richard Lichenstein, University of Maryland Hospital for Children.
Dr. Lichenstein says seizures can continue for hours and in extreme cases, days. They often indicate the presence of epilepsy.
"You don't necessarily have to have epilepsy. Some children just with fever can develop a prolonged seizure and go into status epilepticus," said Dr. Lichenstein. "The longer a seizure lasts, the more compromise there is to breathing, circulation and life itself."
Valium and a drug called Ativan are used to bring the seizures under control. Now researchers at Maryland and around the country want to know which one is the safest and most effective in children.
Although Valium has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of prolonged seizures in children, Ativan has not. The result of the study could change that.
Doctors would then be able to offer patients like Maddie the best care by stopping the seizures and shortening the suffering.
Doctors mentioned high fever as a cause of these seizures, but they can also occur in people who have low blood sugar, infection and head trauma.
The results of the study could be available in two years.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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