yasemin topcu, Esra Ozpinar, mehmet palaz, betul kilic, kursad aydin

Background:The International League Against Epilepsy(ILAE)defines drug-resistant epilepsy(DRE) as“failure of adequate trials of two tolerated,appropriately chosen and used antiepileptic drug schedules to achieve sustained seizure freedom”.Rufinamide was approved for treatment of children with Lennox‐Gastaut-syndrome and also can be efficient as add‐on treatment with DRE. Method:Data of 35 patients with DRE and received rufinamide as add-on treatment between 2015-2021 were reviewed,retrospectively.Electroencephalographic(EEG) findings and seizure frequency were compared before and after rufinamide. Results:Overall,ages of children ranged from 5 months to 16 years(mean:20.7months).Of these patients,14(40%) were female and 21(60%)were male.According to ILAE,7(20%) of the patients had focal,24(69%) generalized,4(11%) undefined type of epilepsy.The duration of treatment was 1-54months (mean 13months).Average dosage of rufinamide was 8-60 mg/kg/day(mean27mg/kg/day).7 patients achieved >50% decrease,4 patients achieved 25%-50% decrease,2 patients achieved <25% decrease in seizure frequency and 5 patients achieved seizure freedom.14 of patients had no benefit from rufinamid.Adverse events were rashes, vomiting, breathing difficulty in three patients and caused discontinuation.Generalized or generalized/focal activity in 23,focal/multifocal activities in 12 patients were seen on EEG.43.5% of patients with generalized and generalized/focal activities and 66.7% with focal activity on EEG had decrease in seizure frequency,but no significant relation found between EEG and decrease in seizure frequency (p: 0.19). conclusion:We evaluated efficacy and tolerability of rufinamide for children with DRE.Despite no significant relation between EEG activities and seizure frequency,proportional decrease as percentage in seizure frequency was found. Our study showed that rufinamide can be a choice for cases of DRE have both generalized and/or focal activities on EEG as an add-on therapy.
Keywords: drug resistant epilepsy, rufinamide, focal

yasemin topcu
medipol mega university hospital
Turkey

Esra Ozpinar
medipol mega university hospital
Turkey

mehmet palaz
medipol mega university hospital
Turkey

betul kilic
medipol mega university hospital
Turkey

kursad aydin
medipol mega university hospital
Turkey