Status epilepticus in adult epileptics followed in a neurologic hospital

One or several status were observed in 90 chronic adult epileptics. Partial status, especially motor and of similar type, is rare in the clinical course of usual partial epilepsy. Generalized status, chiefly petit mal (PM) status, appears in more severe generalized epilepsies. Partial status epilepticus is observed in motor attacks and rarely in partial complex epilepsies, although the latter are more frequent. In 40% of cases the aetiology is unknown. Delay of the first status is variable, from 2 to 30 years. Status does not make previous epilepsy worse. Generalized status, mainly PM status, appears in patients with absences and generalized attacks, sometimes some decades after the beginning of the disease. In half of the cases PM status are frequent but are sometimes the only expression of the epilepsy.