Abstract
Since its first clinical use in France in 1963, valproic acid (VPA) has rapidly established itself worldwide as one of the major antiepileptic drugs, with a broad efficacy for treatment of both generalized and partial seizures in children and adults.1 In October 1996, an IV VPA formulation was approved in Germany for the short-term supplementation of an established oral VPA treatment in patients with epilepsy, when oral-to-parenteral substitution becomes necessary.2 However, IV VPA also offers the opportunity to treat epileptic emergency situations such as prolonged or serial seizures, or even patients with status epilepticus (SE). We report on 41 children with therapy-resistant SE treated with IV VPA. The clinical details of our patients are listed in the table. All children had SE that was refractory to commonly recommended IV antiepileptic drugs (i.e., benzodiazepine compounds, phenytoin, and barbiturates). Whereas 22 of these children received antiepileptic long-term therapy that started before this SE event, SE was the initial presentation of an …
Published Version
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