Problems of intravenous lidocaine treatment in status epilepticus or clustering seizures in childhood

Lidocaine was administered intravenously as a substitute for diazepam, to 12 patients with status epilepticus or clustering seizures aged 26 days to 11 years. The medication was very effective in 3 cases with acute convulsions, which disappeared immediately after infusion of lidocaine without relapse. The medication was effective only temporarily in 4 patients; they experienced relapsing seizures during drip infusion of lidocaine intravenously for maintenance. All the relapsing seizures were secondarily generalized ones with diffuse ictal discharges. In 2 cases of localization-related epilepsy, complex partial seizures evolved to secondarily generalized seizures immediately after administration of lidocaine. It must be noticed that in a relatively large number of cases lidocaine is ineffective or even harmful.