Treatment delay and the risk of prolonged status epilepticus.

Factors contributing to the duration of a single convulsive seizure > 5 minutes were analyzed in 157 children. The medically treated episodes were compared with seizure episodes resolving without treatment (n = 27). Major differences were in age (p = 0.016) and etiology (p = 0.003), and the association between treatment delay and response became significant after 30 minutes when this was analyzed as a single variable (p = 0.003) in Cox regression analysis.