Utilizzo del levetiracetam in 46 pazienti Italiani in età pediatrica

Levetiracetam is one of the newer-generation antiepilepsy drugs and it has been demonstrated to be effective, as add-on therapy, on partial seizures in adults and potentially also on generalized ones. Considering its favorable pharmacokinetic and the absence of adverse events, it has been recently used also in children. We have treated 46 patients (range 4-16 yrs; mean 11.1 yrs) with LVT as add-on therapy for up to 20 months. All patients were affected by refractory epilepsy, taking from 1 to 4 AEDs, and with a documented lack of efficacy of at least 3 other previously taken AEDs. LVT was effective in reducing seizure frequency (11 patients, 23,9%), especially in case of symptomatic partial epilepsy and generalized epilepsy. We noticed that the range of the effective dose (11-33 mg/Kg/die) was below the value reported in literature (20-40 mg/Kg/die). Side-effects were presented in 13 patients (28,2%), leading to interruption of treatment in only 1 case. No evidence was found about major efficacy on a specific type of seizure.