2nd Nordic Status Epilepticus Meeting, Bergen 1-2 May 2023
"From bad to worse" - Therapeutic and ethical challenges in super-refractory status epilepticus.
Status epilepticus (SE) refers to epileptic seizures of unusually long duration and is a serious neurological emergency that requires immediate treatment to avoid significant morbidity and mortality. SE, and especially treatment-refractory forms, are challenging and affect many disciplines, and often raise difficult ethical questions.
The second Nordic meeting on status epilepticus took place on 1-2 June at Hotel Norge in Bergen. The meeting was organized by a specialist network for SE consisting of neurologists from Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim in addition to representatives from the other Nordic countries and initiated by the epilepsy group in department of neurology, OUS-Rikshospitalet (ERGO). The meeting was chaired by Professor Erik Taubøll at OUS-Rikshospitalet and the meeting was supported by the company Desitin Pharma.
The meeting brought together several Nordic professionals with Professor Reetta Kaäviänien from Finland, Professor Christoph Beier from Denmark, and Professors Erik Westhall and Johan Zelano from Sweden. In addition, Professor Anna Maria Vezzani from Italy participated digitally. She is a world leader in inflammation and epilepsy and discussed how different mechanisms of inflammation can be thought to contribute to the development of SE.
Many experienced Norwegian speakers from the fields of neurology, paediatrics and neurophysiology were present, and the patient organisatin, the Epilepsy Association iin Norway was an active participant in the meeting. OUS was very well represented with Kjell Heuser, Toni Berger, Morten Horn and Erik Taubøll from the Department of Neurology, Marianne Ullestad Huun and Inger Sandvig from the Department of Pediatric Neurology as speakers.
Many doctors from Norway with a special interest and knowledge of status epilepticus gave presentations on the latest in treatment, diagnostics and research and shared experiences from special patient cases.
The meeting ended with a panel discussion in which experts and also the Epilepsy Association participated, and where important ethical questions were discussed from both a treatment and patient perspective. How many treatment options should be tried if no improvement is seen? When should treatment end? What is ethically right for the individual patient, for relatives and for society as a whole? These are very difficult questions which it is useful to discuss together with the patient organisations.
The meeting was the second in a series of two-year meetings on the subject, initiated by Professor Erik Taubøll and the Professional Network for SE, and the first outside the pandemic period.
All sessions can be seen at:
Day 1: https://players.brightcove.net/6251020846001/experience_6479973e0693050022293ba6/share.html
Day 2: https://players.brightcove.net/6251020846001/experience_647b1c970693050022294b81/share.html