Assessing the Role of Status Epilepticus Severity Score in Predicting Outcome in Patients with Convulsive Status Epilepticus: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Status Epilepticus (SE) is a neurological emergency that necessitates prompt intervention and treatment. The Status Epilepticus Severity Score (STESS) is a clinical tool developed to assess the mortality rate among patients diagnosed with Convulsive Status Epilepticus (CSE). Aim: To assess the accuracy of STESS in predicting the outcome of CSE. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India from December 2020 to November 2022, involving 110 patients aged more than 15 years presenting with CSE lasting more than five minutes. Age, gender, seizure type, history of epilepsy, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), and STESS at presentation were assessed and associated with the outcome. Results: Among the 110 patients included in the study, there was a higher number of male patients compared to female patients. The mean age of the patients was 35.77±17.9 years. The most prevalent type of seizure observed was generalised tonic-clonic seizures, accounting for 65.45% of the cases, 9.09% of the patients expired, 89% of the patients had a STESS below 2. The Receiver-Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve for STESS at presentation to predict in-hospital mortality had an area under the curve of 0.859, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) from 0.780 to 0.918, and p-value<0.0001. It had a sensitivity of 70%, specificity of 95%, Positive Predictive Value (PPV) of 58.3%, Negative Predictive Value (NPV) of 96.9%, and diagnostic accuracy of 92.73%. Conclusion: Assessment of in-hospital mortality at the onset of SE was reliably determined by STESS and is an useful clinical score. To fully comprehend the reasons for the high overall mortality rate following SE and potential prognostic factors, more research is required.