Update on rufinamide in childhood epilepsy

Rufinamide is an orally active, structurally novel compound (1-[(2,6-difluorophenil1) methyl1]-1 hydro 1,2,3-triazole-4 carboxamide), which is structurally distinct from other anticonvulsant drugs. It was granted orphan drug status for the adjunctive treatment of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) in the United States in 2004, and released for use in Europe in 2007. In January 2009, rufinamide was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for treatment of LGS in children 4 years of age and older. It is also approved for adjunctive treatment for partial seizures in adults and adolescents. Rufinamide’s efficacy mainly against atonic/tonic seizures in patients with LGS seems nowadays indubitable and has been confirmed both in randomized controlled trial and in open label extension studies. More recently, rufinamide was evaluated for the adjunctive treatment of childhood-onset epileptic encephalopathies and epileptic syndromes other than LGS, including epileptic spasms, multifocal epileptic encephalopathy with spasm/tonic seizures, myoclonic-astatic epilepsy, Dravet syndrome and malignant migrating partial seizures in infancy. This review updates the existing literature data on the efficacy and safety/tolerability of rufinamide in childhood-onset epilepsy syndromes.