As Hamlet put it, “Readiness is all”. When managing convulsive status epilepticus, all the evidence points to patients being safest if doctors follow a protocol. Shelley Jones and colleagues draw together the modest evidence base for managing convulsive status epilepticus into a simple staged scheme—available free to download from our website—as a cut-out-and-keep handout (see page 194). Aiden Neligan helps us to put such protocols into perspective (see page 134).

Areas with a less clear-cut consensus or evidence for management often require instead expert opinion. We invited Allan Ropper to use his experience of neuro-intensive care in Boston to bring us his approach to managing raised intracranial pressure (see page 152).

Head injury …