The potential of brain stimulation in status epilepticus.

There is a long history of the use of brain stimulation in the treatment of epilepsy but relatively little experience for its use in status epilepticus. Electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, subcortical and cortical stimulation have all been tried with varying degrees of success in single cases or small case series. It remains unclear, however, which brain areas should be stimulated and the parameters that should be used. Moreover, the aim (stopping status epilepticus) is different from preventing seizures and so the brain areas and parameters that are useful in epilepsy may not directly translate to the treatment of status epilepticus.