Oxcarbazepine in the treatment of childhood epilepsy.

In this study, oxcarbazepine was began as monotherapy to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the drug. Forty-two patients (19 females, 23 males) with partial or generalized epilepsy more than 4 years of age were included (mean age, 11.9 +/- 3.4 years). The mean age at epilepsy onset 8.9 +/- 4 years. Complete blood count, liver function tests, electrolytes, lipid levels, electrocardiography, electroencephalography, and magnetic resonance imaging were performed in all patients. Oxcarbazepine dose was begun at 10 mg/kg/day twice daily and increased to 30 mg/kg/day at the end of the second week. Patients with inadequate seizure control even with the dose of 45 mg/kg/day or intolerable side effects were excluded. Intolerable headache and leukopenia led to discontinuation of the drug in two patients. At the sixth month, 35 of the patients (87.5%) were seizure free (91.7% of the generalized epilepsy patients and 81.2% of the partial epilepsy patients). The most frequent tolerable side effect was drowsiness in 12 patients. As a result, we found oxcarbazepine safe and effective in children with either generalized or partial epilepsy.