Efficacy of continuous intravenous infusion of midazolam in the treatment of status epilepticus in children

Midazolam infusion was tried as the treatment for 48 episodes of refractory status epilepticus or a cluster of seizures in 16 children. The mean age of patients was 3.5 years (range, 1 month to 18 years). Nine children had epilepsy, one purulent meningitis, one encephalitis, one acute cerebral infarction, and the remaining four had acute phase of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. The type of the seizure was a generalized tonic clonic seizure (including a partial seizure secondarily generalized) in 41 episodes, a tonic seizure in 3, an atypical absence in 1, and a complex partial seizure in 3, respectively. All patients received intravenous midazolam at 0.15 mg/kg as bolus, followed by a continuous infusion at 0.1-0.15 mg/kg/hr initially. The dose was increased gradually up to 0.3 mg/kg/hr until the complete control of seizures was achieved. Fourty-one of the 48 episodes of seizures were controlled within 30 minutes after the initiation of midazolam therapy. The mean infusion rate of midazolam required was 0.22 mg/kg/hr. The mean duration of the treatment was 4.1 days. None of the patients had serious changes in the blood pressure or respiratory status attributable to the use of midazolam. In conclusion, midazolam infusion is an effective and safe therapeutic approach for the management of childhood status epilepticus.