Levetiracetam Monotherapy In Children with Epilepsy.

Sim,  Gi Youn; Kim,  Won Seop

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Child Neurology Society 2011;19(1):26-32.
Published online April 30, 2011.

Levetiracetam Monotherapy In Children with Epilepsy.

Gi Youn Sim, Won Seop Kim

Department of Pediatrics, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea. wskim@chungbuk.ac.kr

Abstract

PURPOSE
Levetiracetam hasa been used in adjuvant therapy. It has also been used in monotherapy in other countries and therefore, we also studied the effect and efficacy of Levetiracetam monotherapy. METHODS: We retrospectively studied the types of epilepsy, EEG, and drug dosage. We studied 101 epilepsy children treated by Levitiracetam monotherapy who had visited our hospital from August 2007 to July 2009. RESULTS: Participants were aged one month to 20 years. The mean age of Levetiacetam therapy was initially 11+/-4 years (from 3 years to 21 years), and the type of epilepsy was partial in 57.4% and generalized in 42.6%. The mean dose I initially began at 6+/-4 mg/kg/day (from 2 mg/kg/day to 30 mg/kg/day) with a mean final dose of 30+/-8 mg/kg/day (from 6 mg/kg/day to 60 mg/kg/day), a mean duration of therapy of 21+/-11months, and a duration of therapy ranging from one to 38months. Further, 60.3% of patients became seizure free and 96.9% exhibited at least a 50% reduction in seizure over a 12 month period. Side effects included behavioral change (8), asthenia (2), cognitive change (1), rash (2), headache (5), inadequate seizure control (2), and increased seizure (5). Levetiracetam was discontinued due to inadequate seizure control (2), increased seizure (5) and side effects (2). CONCLUSION: We studied the efficacy and tolerability of monotherapy of Levetiracetam and found that it was effective and tolerable in monotherapy for epilepsy.

Key Words: Anticonvulsants, Epilepsy, Child