title: Lacosamide in refractory mixed pediatric epilepsy: a prospective add-on study.
abstract: Lacosamide is a new antiepileptic drug that is currently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for adults 17 years or older for partial-onset seizures. The authors reviewed 21 pediatric patients (<17 years) with various seizure types who were started on oral lacosamide as part of a prospective add-on study as adjunctive therapy for refractory epilepsy. Five patients were excluded due to less than 3 months of meaningful follow-up. Maintenance dosages used ranged from 2.4 to 19.4 mg/kg/d. Eight of 16 (50%) patients had greater than 50% reduction in seizure frequency with adjunctive lacosamide therapy. Eight (50%) patients had generalized epilepsy including 4 with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. Lacosamide was effective therapy for most seizure types but was particularly effective for partial-onset seizures. Lacosamide was effective in treating 5 of 8 (62.5%) localization-related epilepsies but only 2 of 8 (25%) generalized epilepsies, both Lennox-Gastaut syndrome patients with greater than 90% seizure reduction. None of these very refractory patients remained seizure free.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Reena Gogia
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Rastogi
authors.forename: Yu-Tze
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Ng
mesh_terms: D000081:Acetamides / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000293:Adolescent; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D055423:Diet, Ketogenic / Q000379:methods; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000145:classification / Q000178:diet therapy / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D000078334:Lacosamide; D008297:Male; D010372:Pediatrics; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055536:Vagus Nerve Stimulation / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D000081:Acetamides; D000927:Anticonvulsants; D000078334:Lacosamide