Multicenter prospective study of levetiracetam therapy for children's epilepsy in Wuhan

OBJECTIVE To study the efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam in children with epilepsy.METHODS In this prospective multi-centre,open-label study,seventy-five patients(53 males and 22 females) with epilepsy,aged between 1.5 months and 14 years was treated with levetiracetam for over 3 months.Among these patients,30 children are partial seizure,28 children are primary generalized seizures and 17 children are epilepsy syndrome.The initial dose of 10 mg·kg-1·d-1 was increased with one week steps of 10 mg·kg-1·d-1,up to a minimum effective dose.Record the patients' frequency of seizure and adverse effects during therapy,evaluation the efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam after 12 weeks.RESULTS After 12 weeks therapy,30(40.0%) children were effective,31(41.3%) children had been seizure-free,while 12(16.0%) children were ineffective,2(2.7%) children were deteriorate.The efficacy between different seizure groups were no significant differences(P0.05).CONCLUSION Levetiracetam is effective with good tolerability for children with epilepsy of different clinic types.