Epilepsia
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
A multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of levetiracetam in children and adolescents with newly diagnosed absence epilepsy.
To evaluate the potential efficacy of levetiracetam as an antiabsence agent in children and adolescents with newly diagnosed childhood or juvenile absence epilepsy. ⋯ Although superiority to placebo just failed to reach statistical significance for the primary end point, the overall findings are consistent with levetiracetam having modest efficacy against absence seizures. Further controlled trials exploring larger doses and an active comparator are required to determine the role of levetiracetam in the treatment of absence epilepsy.
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Phenobarbital for neonatal seizures in hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy: a pharmacokinetic study during whole body hypothermia.
Therapeutic hypothermia has recently been introduced to treat term newborns with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, of whom more than half have seizures. Phenobarbital is widely used to treat neonatal seizures, but it is unknown whether its pharmacokinetics is affected by hypothermia. We evaluated the influence of hypothermia on phenobarbital pharmacokinetics in asphyxiated newborns. ⋯ Phenobarbital administered to newborns under whole body hypothermia results in higher plasma concentrations and longer half-lives than expected in normothermic newborns.