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Evaluation of the efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam as add-on therapy in intractable epilepsy of children
OBJECTIVE: One-third of epilepsy of children is refractory, and this study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and adverse events of levetiracetam as add-on therapy in the treatment of refractory epilepsy of children. MATERIALS & METHODS: In this quasi-experimental study, seizures frequency a...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9047840/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35497099 http://dx.doi.org/10.22037/ijcn.v15i4.29028 |
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author | Razieh, Razieh SHAFIEI, Alireza DEHGHANI FIROUZABADI, Fatemah FATHI, Ali |
author_facet | Razieh, Razieh SHAFIEI, Alireza DEHGHANI FIROUZABADI, Fatemah FATHI, Ali |
author_sort | Razieh, Razieh |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVE: One-third of epilepsy of children is refractory, and this study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and adverse events of levetiracetam as add-on therapy in the treatment of refractory epilepsy of children. MATERIALS & METHODS: In this quasi-experimental study, seizures frequency and side effects of 314 children aged 1-14 years with refractory epilepsy were referred to the Pediatric Neurology Clinic of Shahid Sadoughi Medical Sciences University, Yazd, Iran, and treated with levetiracetam for six months, were evaluated. RESULTS: We evaluated 142 girls and 172 boys with a mean age of 6.78±2.12 years. At the end of six months of treatment with levetiracetam, 20% became seizure-free, 28% had more than 50% decrease in seizure frequency, 38% did not have a notable change in seizure frequency, and 14% experienced an increase in seizure frequency. Good response (stopping of all seizures or more than 50% reduction in seizure frequency) was seen in 51% of mixed types, 61% of myoclonic seizures, 64% of generalized tonic-clonic seizures, 69 % of partial seizures, 100 % of tonic seizures, and in 40 % of atonic seizures. Levetiracetam was significantly more effective in partial seizures, idiopathic epilepsies, and children with normal developmental status and normal brain MRI. Twelve children discontinued the treatment due to severe drowsiness, restlessness, and exacerbation of seizures. Transient and mild side effects, including somnolence, anorexia, fatigue, headache, ataxia, and diplopia, were seen in 9% (N=28) of patients. CONCLUSION: Levetiracetam could be considered an efficient and safe adjunct therapy in treating refractory epilepsy in children. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9047840 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-90478402022-06-01 Evaluation of the efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam as add-on therapy in intractable epilepsy of children Razieh, Razieh SHAFIEI, Alireza DEHGHANI FIROUZABADI, Fatemah FATHI, Ali Iran J Child Neurol Original Article OBJECTIVE: One-third of epilepsy of children is refractory, and this study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and adverse events of levetiracetam as add-on therapy in the treatment of refractory epilepsy of children. MATERIALS & METHODS: In this quasi-experimental study, seizures frequency and side effects of 314 children aged 1-14 years with refractory epilepsy were referred to the Pediatric Neurology Clinic of Shahid Sadoughi Medical Sciences University, Yazd, Iran, and treated with levetiracetam for six months, were evaluated. RESULTS: We evaluated 142 girls and 172 boys with a mean age of 6.78±2.12 years. At the end of six months of treatment with levetiracetam, 20% became seizure-free, 28% had more than 50% decrease in seizure frequency, 38% did not have a notable change in seizure frequency, and 14% experienced an increase in seizure frequency. Good response (stopping of all seizures or more than 50% reduction in seizure frequency) was seen in 51% of mixed types, 61% of myoclonic seizures, 64% of generalized tonic-clonic seizures, 69 % of partial seizures, 100 % of tonic seizures, and in 40 % of atonic seizures. Levetiracetam was significantly more effective in partial seizures, idiopathic epilepsies, and children with normal developmental status and normal brain MRI. Twelve children discontinued the treatment due to severe drowsiness, restlessness, and exacerbation of seizures. Transient and mild side effects, including somnolence, anorexia, fatigue, headache, ataxia, and diplopia, were seen in 9% (N=28) of patients. CONCLUSION: Levetiracetam could be considered an efficient and safe adjunct therapy in treating refractory epilepsy in children. Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences 2022 2022-03-14 /pmc/articles/PMC9047840/ /pubmed/35497099 http://dx.doi.org/10.22037/ijcn.v15i4.29028 Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) ) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Original Article Razieh, Razieh SHAFIEI, Alireza DEHGHANI FIROUZABADI, Fatemah FATHI, Ali Evaluation of the efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam as add-on therapy in intractable epilepsy of children |
title | Evaluation of the efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam as add-on therapy in intractable epilepsy of children |
title_full | Evaluation of the efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam as add-on therapy in intractable epilepsy of children |
title_fullStr | Evaluation of the efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam as add-on therapy in intractable epilepsy of children |
title_full_unstemmed | Evaluation of the efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam as add-on therapy in intractable epilepsy of children |
title_short | Evaluation of the efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam as add-on therapy in intractable epilepsy of children |
title_sort | evaluation of the efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam as add-on therapy in intractable epilepsy of children |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9047840/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35497099 http://dx.doi.org/10.22037/ijcn.v15i4.29028 |
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