소아간질에서 성공적인 항경련제 치료에 영향을 미치는 인자

FACTORS INFLUENCING SUCCESSFUL WITHDRAWAL OF ANTIEPILEPTIC DRUGS IN CHILDHOOD EPILEPSY

Antiepileptic drugs were discontinued in 104 children with epilepsy of various causes. Their age was under 15 years. They had been free of seizures for two or more years. The subjects were then followed more than 1 years. Sixty patients relapsed. and 44 remained free of seizures. The clinical factors examined in this study were age of onset of seizure, sex, etiology, duration of seizure before treatment, type of seizure. EEG and brain C-T finding. Presence or absence of etiology, neurological findings before treatment, type of seizures and number of used antiepileptic drugs important in predicting outcome. Our results suggest cryptogenic epilepsy (p<0.0005), generalized type of seizure (p<0.01) and treatment with single antiepileptic drug (p<0.005) were favorable prognostic factors. We conclude that it seems resonable to consider discontinuing antiepileptic medications in children who fall into a favorable prognostic category after being free of seizures for two years. But children with a poorer prognosis should be maintained on medications more than two years.