We observed the effect of vigabatrin in 112 patients with pediatric intractable epilepsy at Severance hospital and Sang-gye Paik hospital.
Vigabatrin was added on their former anticonvulsants for 3 to 6 months and the change of seizure frequencies were checked regularly for I month interval.
The results are as follows :
1) 78 patients(69.6%) had neurological abnormalities such as mental retardation, cerebral palsy, behavior disorder or mild neurologic disorders.
2) 49 patients(43.8%) had some abnormalities in their brain CT scan or MRI examinations.
3) Among 42 patients of partial seizure, 26 patients(61.9%) had marked improvement (seizure reduction rate over 75%) in seizure frequency and 3 patients(7.1%) had moderate improvement(seizure reduction rate between 50-75%), 19 patients(45.2%)
were
free
from seizure during the observing periods.
4) Among 42 patients of generalized seizure, 9 patients(21.5%) had marked improvement and 10 patients(22.8%) had moderate improvement, but 22 patients(52.4%) revealed no change or worse in seizure frequency during the observing periods.
5) In myoclonic seizure, the worst result was noticed in comparing with other types of seizure.
6) Among 26 patients of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, 12 patients(46.2%) had marked improvement and 4 patients(15.4%) had moderate improvement, but 6 patients(23.1%) had no change or worse results.
7) In general, 47 patients(42.0%) among the 112 patients with intractable epilepsy revealed marked improvement after the add-on therapy of vigabatrin and 17 patients(15.2%) had moderate improvement, but 11 patients(9.8%) had worse results in
seizure
frequency.
8) Side effects of vigabatrin were noticed in 11 cases(10%) of patients, and they were dizziness(4 cases), headache(1 case), nausea(2 cases), weight gain (1 case) and mood instability(3 cases).
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