ArticleBMJ open2016
Cross-sectional study of the prehospital management of adult patients with a suspected seizure (EPIC1).
Article in BMJ open, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 70 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trial
- Assessing Treatment Fidelity within an Epilepsy Randomized Controlled Trial: Seizure First Aid Training for People with Epilepsy Who Visit Emergency Departments.Behavioural neurology · 2019Trial
- Characteristics and causes in patients presenting with convulsions in the Danish prehospital setting.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- Evaluating the feasibility of prehospital point-of-care EEG: The prehospital implementation of rapid EEG (PHIRE) study.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2024Article
- Raring to go? A cross-sectional survey of student paramedics on how well they perceive their UK pre-registration course to be preparing them to manage suspected seizures.BMC emergency medicine · 2023Article
- Non-1st seizure was less severe than 1st seizure with non-urgent level among suspected seizures transferred by ambulance.PloS one · 2023Article
- Article
- Excessive hospitalization of patients with seizures in the Germany prehospital emergency system: a retrospective cohort study.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- A survey of general practitioner's opinion on the proposal to introduce 'treat and referral' into the Irish emergency medical service.Irish journal of medical science · 2020Article
- A data linkage study of suspected seizures in the urgent and emergency care system in the UK.Emergency medicine journal : EMJ · 2020Article
- Patient views on use of emergency and alternative care services for adult epilepsy: A qualitative study.Seizure · 2020Article
- Stakeholder opinion on the proposal to introduce 'treat and referral' into the Irish emergency medical service.BMC emergency medicine · 2019Article
- Article
- Using vignettes to assess the accuracy and rationale of paramedic decisions on conveyance to the emergency department.British paramedic journal · 2019Article
- Article
- Cross-sectional study of the hospital management of adult patients with a suspected seizure (EPIC2).BMJ open · 2017Article
- Paramedics' views on their seizure management learning needs: a qualitative study in England.BMJ open · 2017Article
- Qualitative study of paramedics' experiences of managing seizures: a national perspective from England.BMJ open · 2016Article
- Value of patient-reported symptoms in the diagnosis of transient loss of consciousness.Neurology · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesSuspected seizures are a common reason for emergency calls to ambulance services. Prehospital management of these patients is an important element of good quality care. The aim of this study, conducted in a regional ambulance service in the UK, was to quantify the number of emergency telephone calls for suspected seizures in adults, the associated costs, and to describe the patients' characteristics, their prehospital management and their immediate outcomes.
designQuantitative cross-sectional study using routinely collected data and a detailed review of the clinical records of a consecutive series of adult patients (≥ 16 years).
settingA regional ambulance service within the National Health Service in England.
participantsCross-sectional data from all 605,481 adult emergency incidents managed by the ambulance service from 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013. We selected a consecutive series of 178 individual incidents from May 2012 for more detailed analysis (132 after exclusions and removal of non-seizure cases).
resultsSuspected seizures made up 3.3% of all emergency incidents. True medical emergencies were uncommon but 3.3% had partially occluded airways, 6.8% had ongoing seizure activity and 59.1% had clinical problems in addition to the seizure (29.1% involving injury). Emergency vehicles were dispatched for 97.2% of suspected seizures, the seizure had terminated on arrival in 93.2% of incidents, 75% of these patients were transported to hospital. The estimated emergency management cost per annum of suspected seizures in the English ambulance services is £45.2 million (€64.0 million, $68.6 million).
conclusionsMany patients with suspected seizures could potentially be treated more effectively and at lower cost by modifying ambulance call handling protocols. The development of innovative care pathways could give call handlers and paramedics alternatives to hospital transportation. Increased adoption of care plans could reduce 999 calls and could increase the rates of successful home or community treatment.
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