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Long‐term levetiracetam treatment in patients with epilepsy: 3‐year follow up
Author(s) -
Kuba R.,
Novotná I.,
Brázdil M.,
Kočvarová J.,
Tyrlíková I.,
Mastík J.,
Rektor I.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
acta neurologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.967
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1600-0404
pISSN - 0001-6314
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0404.2009.01257.x
Subject(s) - levetiracetam , tolerability , medicine , epilepsy , adverse effect , retention rate , anesthesia , pediatrics , surgery , psychiatry , computer security , computer science
Kuba R, Novotná I, Brázdil M, Kočvarová J, Tyrlíková I, Mastík J, Rektor I. Long‐term levetiracetam treatment in patients with epilepsy: 3‐year follow up.
Acta Neurol Scand: 2010: 121: 83–88.
© 2009 The Authors Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Munksgaard. Objectives – To assess the long‐term efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam in routine clinical practice. Materials and methods – We retrospectively analysed 218 patients, mostly adults, presenting mostly with localisation‐related epilepsy, treated with levetiracetam as adjunctive therapy or monotherapy for up to 36 months. The primary points evaluated were: long‐term retention rate, reasons for discontinuing levetiracetam and the percentage of seizure‐free patients. Results – The retention rate at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months following the commencement of levetiracetam treatment was 91.7, 75.2, 60.1 and 53.7% respectively. Sixty‐seven (30.7%) patients discontinued levetiracetam treatment. During the clinical audit evaluation period, surgical resection or implantation of VNS was performed in 31 (14.3%) patients. In 53 of the 67 patients (79.1%), the treatment was discontinued due to lack of efficacy; in 14 patients (20.9%) treatment was discontinued due to adverse events. In total, 24 of 218 patients (11.0%) were seizure‐free for 36 months. Conclusions – Levetiracetam is an effective and well‐tolerated option for long‐term treatment of epilepsy in adults.