Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Sep 26, 2019; 7(18): 2831-2837
Published online Sep 26, 2019. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i18.2831
Propofol pump controls nonconvulsive status epilepticus in a hepatic encephalopathy patient: A case report
Shao Hor, Chih-Yu Chen, Sheng-Ta Tsai
Shao Hor, Department of Anesthesiology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 40447, Taiwan
Chih-Yu Chen, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 40447, Taiwan
Sheng-Ta Tsai, Department of Neurology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 40447, Taiwan
Author contributions: Hor S contributed to study conception, data collection, and manuscript writing; Chen CY is the chief doctor of the patient and decided the diagnosis and treatment goal; Tsai ST performed the continuous EEG, made the diagnosis, and initiated this case report.
Informed consent statement: We obtained written inform consent in Chinese from the patient’s wife because the patient was initially in a coma and then confusion in following days.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors have no conflict of interest related to the manuscript.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sheng-Ta Tsai, MD, Attending Doctor, Doctor, Department of Neurology, China Medical University Hospital, No. 2, Yude Road, North District, Taichung 40447, Taiwan. d27056@mail.cmuh.org.tw
Telephone: +886-9-28262460 Fax: +886-4-22052121
Received: March 17, 2019
Peer-review started: March 18, 2019
First decision: August 1, 2019
Revised: August 13, 2019
Accepted: August 25, 2019
Article in press: August 26, 2019
Published online: September 26, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: This case highlights the probability of nonconvulsive status epilepticus in patients with liver cirrhosis who do not respond to standard treatment. A multidisciplinary team that includes a neurologist, intensivists, and electroencephalography technicians would contribute to achieving a general improvement in patients with this condition. We also recommend that propofol is a reasonable choice of treatment in such cases.