Long-term levetiracetam treatment of epilepsy patients: clinical audit.
OBJECTIVE
The long-term efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam (LEV) was analysed in 218 epilepsy patients. One hundred and ninety-nine patients were treated for at least 6 months. We evaluated LEV efficacy for all types of seizures together, and for simple partial, complex partial and secondary generalized seizures individually.


RESULTS
A significant decrease in the number of seizures occurred after 6 months of treatment (p<0.001). Mean seizure frequency (irrespective of type) before LEV was 19.2 a month. The mean monthly frequency at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months dropped to 12.7, 10.5, 9.7 and 7.1 seizures a month, respectively. The mean percentage reduction in seizures at these times was 45.7, 52.1, 59.1 and 64.2% and the number of responding patients was 51.3, 54.2, 59.8 and 62.2%. The number of patients completely seizure free was 18.6, 16.7, 15.2 and 16.2%. We found similar results in the last three categories for partial simple, complex and secondary generalized seizures individually. Side effects in 18.3% of patients caused treatment discontinuation in 6.4%. The most frequent were somnolence, moodiness and dizziness. The retention rate at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months was 0.848, 0.72, 0.62 and 0.5, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
LEV is effective and well tolerated for long-term treatment of epilepsy.
Kuba
R
R
Epilepsy Centre; Department of Neurology, Masaryk University, St. Anne's Teaching Hospital, Brno, Czech Republic. robert.kuba@fnusa.cz
Novotná
I
I
Brázdil
M
M
Kocvarová
J
J
Tyrliková
I
I
Mastík
J
J
Rektor
I
I
D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D000077287:Levetiracetam; D010889:Piracetam / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
D000927:Anticonvulsants; D000077287:Levetiracetam; D010889:Piracetam