PURPOSE The present study aimed to assess the efficacy and tolerability of rufinamide as adjunctive drug for the treatment of a large series of children, adolescents and adults with refractory cryptogenic or symptomatic focal epilepsy. METHODS Patients were recruited in a prospective, add-on, open-label treatment study from six Italian and one German centers for pediatric and adolescent epile...

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) provides palliation of seizure reduction for patients with medically refractory epilepsy. VNS is indicated for symptomatic localization-related epilepsy with multiple and bilateral independent foci, symptomatic generalized epilepsy with diffuse epileptogenic abnormalities, refractory idiopathic generalized epilepsy, failed intracranial epilepsy surgery, and other s...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We evaluated the long-term outcome of patients with refractory epilepsy who were treated with vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). METHODS This investigation is designed as an uncontrolled, open-label, retrospective and long-term study. From June 1999 to October 2009, 20 patients were suitable for inclusion criteria: 4-year follow-up and documented seizure frequency before an...

BACKGROUND There is a lack of data concerning socioeconomic outcome and quality of life (QoL) in patients after status epilepticus (SE) in Germany. PATIENTS AND METHODS Adult patients treated between 2011 and 2015 due to SE at the university hospitals in Frankfurt, Greifswald, and Marburg were asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding long-term outcome of at least 3 months after discharge. ...

Context: Recently, new anti-epileptic drugs are marketed to be used as an add-on to the traditional drugs in children with refractory epilepsy. Levetiracetam is a second-generation of new anti-epileptic drugs with unknown precise mechanism of action in brain and synaptic vesicle in children with drug resistant epilepsy. Herein, the efficacy and safety of add-on levetiracetam in children with re...

Hypoglycaemia can lead to acute disorders of cognition, consciousness, epilepsy, transient ischemia, psychosis and chronic disorders of dementia and neuropathy. Misdiagnosis and delay in treatment are common and prolonged hypoglycemia can lead to permanent neurological deficit or fatal coma. Hypoglycemia caused by an insulinoma is a readily treatable condition that should be considered in the d...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Resting-state networks including the DMN have been shown to be abnormal in adults with temporal lobe epilepsy. However, little is known about the DMN in children with medically refractory epilepsy. The aim was to determine whether there was a difference in the DMN in children with medically refractory epilepsy relative to controls. MATERIALS AND METHODS Eleven children ...