How to Manage Electrical Status Epilepticus in Sleep

Summary: Electrical status epilepticus in sleep is an age-dependent syndrome with the characteristic pattern of continuous spike and waves during non-rapid eye movement sleep. Most children can present developmental deterioration. The demonstration of the EEG pattern has to rely on all night long EEG recordings. A comprehensive neuropsychologic evaluation with periodic reassessment should be performed. For the idiopathic forms of electrical status epilepticus in sleep, clobazam could be considered as the first-line therapy; in the other cases, corticosteroids, in particular intravenous methylprednisolone pulse therapy, remain the most effective and should be considered the therapy of choice.