Neurology Specific Literature Search   
 
[home][thesaurus]
    
Click Here to return To Results

 

Early Identification of Refracvtory Epilepsy
NEJM 342:314-319, Kwan,P.&Brodie,M.J., 2000
See this aricle in Pubmed

Article Abstract
Among the 525 patients, 333 (63 percent) remained seizure-free during antiepileptic-drug treatment or after treatment was stopped. The prevalence of persistent seizures was higher in patients with symptomatic or cryptogenic epilepsy than i n those with idiopathic epilepsy (40 percent vs. 26 percent, P=0.004) and in patients who had had more than 20 seizures before starting treatment than in those who had had fewer (51 percent vs. 29 percent, P<0.001). The seizure-free rate was similar in p atients who were treated with a single established drug (67 percent) and patients who were treated with a single new drug (69 percent). Among 470 previously untreated patients, 222 (47 percent) became seizure-free during treatment with their first antie pileptic drug and 67 (14 percent) became seizure-free during treatment with a second or third drug. In 12 patients (3 percent) epilepsy was controlled by treatment with two drugs. Among patients who had no response to the first drug, the percentage who subsequently became seizure-free was smaller (11 percent) when treatment failure was due to lack of efficacy than when it was due to intolerable side effects (41 percent) or an idiosyncratic reaction (55 percent). Patients who have many seizures before t herapy or who have an inadequate response to initial treatment with antiepileptic drugs are likely to have refractory epilepsy.
 
Related Tags
(click to filter results - removes previous filter)

anticonvulsants,effectiveness
prognosis
seizure
seizure,intractable
seizure,intractable,treatment of
seizure,medication failure
seizure,prognosis in adults
seizure,prognosis in childhood
seizure,repetitive
seizure,surgical treatment of
seizure,treatment of
seizure,treatment of,monotherapy

Click Here to return To Results