title: Anticonvulsants for preventing mortality and morbidity in full term newborns with perinatal asphyxia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the benefits and harm of administering anticonvulsants to infants of 37 weeks gestation or more following perinatal asphyxia with the primary aims of prevention of death or subsequent severe neurodevelopmental disability and/or the prevention of seizures.
  
  
  METHODS
  Relevant randomised controlled trials were identified using a combination of electronic database searches (MEDLINE), hand searches and a search of the Neonatal Review Group trials register.
  
  
  METHODS
  All randomised, or quasi-randomised, controlled clinical trials with reported data comparing the following outcomes: mortality, neurodevelopmental disability, neonatal seizures and adverse events, following anticonvulsant therapy in term infants (37 weeks or more), compared to controls with or without placebo, following perinatal asphyxia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Methodological quality and validity of studies were assessed without consideration of the results. Data relevant to the outcome were extracted and analysed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials which met the selection criteria were identified. No studies were of sufficient methodological quality and size to demonstrate a valid, clinically significant change in the risk of mortality or severe neurodevelopmental disability. A meta-analysis combining three studies comparing barbiturates with conventional therapy following perinatal asphyxia demonstrated no difference in risks of death, severe neurodevelopmental disability, or death or severe neurodevelopmental disability.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  At the present time, anticonvulsant therapy to term infants in the immediate period following perinatal asphyxia cannot be recommended for routine clinical practice, other than in the treatment of prolonged or frequent clinical seizures. Any future studies should be of high quality: randomised control trials with allocation concealment, performance and outcome assessment blinding. Such studies should be of sufficient size, with minimal attrition, to have the power to detect clinically important reductions in mortality and severe neurodevelopmental disability, as the primary outcome measures.
authors.affiliation: Division of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Leeds, D Floor Clarendon Wing, The General Infirmary at Leeds, Leeds, UK, LS2 9NS. d.j.evans@leeds.ac.uk
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Levene
mesh_terms: D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001238:Asphyxia Neonatorum / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants