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Abstract
Background: To report on the first multicenter Italian experience with rufinamide as
adjunctive drug in children, adolescents and young adults with refractory childhoodonset
epileptic encephalopathies other than Lennox–Gastaut syndrome.
Methods: Thirty-eight patients (19 males, 19 females), aged between 4 and 34 (mean
13.7 ± 8.3, median 12.5), all affected by different types of childhood-onset refractory
epileptic encephalopathies other than Lennox–Gastaut syndrome, were treated with
rufinamide as adjunctive drug for a mean period of 11.4 months (range 3–26 months).
Results: Fifteen of 38 patients (39.5%) had a ‡50% seizure reduction in countable
seizures. Complete seizure freedom was achieved in one of these patients (2.6%).
Three patients (7.9%) had a 25–49% seizure reduction, whilst seizure frequency
remained unchanged in 15 (39.5%) and increased in five patients (13.1%). Eleven
patients (28.9%) reported adverse side effects. Vomiting was reported in five patients
(13.1%); drowsiness, decreased appetite and irritability with migraine manifested in
other four patients. They were transient and mild in all cases.
Conclusion: Rufinamide may be an effective and well-tolerated adjunctive drug for
the treatment of refractory childhood-onset epileptic encephalopathies other than
Lennox–Gastaut syndrome. Rufinamide was most effective in patients with dropattacks
and (bi)frontal spike–wave discharges.
Introduction
Rufinamide is a structurally triazole-derivative (1-[2,6-
difluorophenyl)methyl]-1hydro-1,2,3-triazole-carboxamide)
novel antiepileptic drug, structurally unrelated to
the existing antiepileptic drugs, and approved by the
Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of
Lennox–Gastaut syndrome in patients aged 4 and over,
and for the treatment of partial seizures in adults and
adolescents.
The proposed mechanism of action is the limitation
of excessiv