Antiepileptic drugs for treating seizures in adults with brain tumours

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2011

Antiepileptic drugs for treating seizures in adults with brain tumours - The Cochrane Library - Kerrigan - Wiley Online Library from LOGIN Enter e-mail address Enter password REMEMBER ME > > > > DATABASE TOOLS DATABASE MENU FIND ARTICLES OTHER RESOURCES Intervention Review You have full text access to this content Antiepileptic drugs for treating seizures in adults with brain tumours Simon Kerrigan * , Robin Grant Editorial Group: Published Online: 10 AUG 2011 Assessed as up-to-date: 5 JUL 2011 DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD008586.pub2 Copyright © 2011 The Cochrane Collaboration.
Objectives To evaluate the relative effectiveness and tolerability of antiepileptic drugs commonly used to treat seizures in adults with brain tumours.
Search methods We searched CENTRAL (Issue 2 of 4, The Cochrane Library 2011), MEDLINE (1948 to May week 3, 2011) and EMBASE (1980 to 31 May 2011) databases.
In addition, we handsearched articles published since 2000 in the following journals selected by the authors: Epilepsia; The Lancet Neurology and Neuro-Oncology.
Selection criteria Controlled clinical trials with random allocation of the use of antiepileptic drugs to treat seizures in adults with brain tumours.
Data collection and analysis Both review authors screened the search results and reviewed the abstracts of potentially relevant articles before retrieving the full text of eligible articles.
Main results Only one trial met the inclusion criteria for this review which was a small, open-label, unblinded, randomised trial of the safety and feasibility of switching from phenytoin to levetiracetam monotherapy or continuing phenytoin for glioma-related seizure control following craniotomy ( ).
Levetiracetam (a non enzyme-inducing antiepileptic drug) appears to have been at least as well tolerated and as effective as phenytoin (an enzyme-inducing antiepileptic drug) for the treatment of seizures in people with brain tumours.
Eighty-seven per cent of participants treated with levetiracetam were free of seizures at six months compared with 75% of participants treated with phenytoin.
There is one ongoing study of levetiracetam versus pregabalin for the treatment of seizures in adults undergoing chemotherapy, radiotherapy,or both for primary brain tumours.
Authors' conclusions There is a lack of robust, randomised, controlled evidence to support the choice of antiepileptic drug for the treatment of seizures in adults with brain tumours.