Open label pilot study of oxcarbazepine for inpatients under evaluation for epilepsy surgery

✍ Scribed by Robert S. Fisher; Jennifer Eskola; David Blum; John F. Kerrigan III; Joseph Drazkowski; Bonnie Duncan

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 605 KB
• Volume: 38
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0272-4391
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1098-2299(199605)38:1<43::aid-ddr5>3.0.co;2-l

✦ Synopsis

Oxcarbazepine (OXC) i s a keto analogue of carbamazepine with no epoxide metabolite. We performed an open-label pilot study of OXC in six men and four women undergoing presurgical evaluation for complex partial o r secondarily generalized seizures. Mean age was 34.3 * 8.3 years, and mean duration of epilepsy was 18.2 +-11.1 years. Patients were monitored for approximately 7 days before entry into an open-label add-on OXC study. Baseline antiepileptic medications were stopped in seven of the ten patients prior to initiating OXC. OXC was titrated to 2,400 mglday in two divided doses over 2-3 days. The baseline daily seizure frequency was 0.75 2 0.49, compared to 0.19 * 0.31 seizures per day during the 10 days subjects were on OXC (P = .04, two-tailed paired t test). Overall, 80% of patients showed at least a 50% reduction in seizures, and the mean reduction was to 32% of the baseline. Adverse events consisted of nausea (20%), ataxia (lo%), fatigue (lo%), blurred vision (1 O%), and pruritus (10%). Segmented neutrophil counts, serum sodium, and serum AST declined with OXC. This pilot study suggests preliminary evidence for safety and efficacy of oxc.