Abstracts

Rationale: Eslicarbazepine acetate (ESL) is a novel voltage-gated sodium channel blocker authorized as add-on therapy in adults with partial onset seizures (POS) with or without secondary generalization. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ESL in a Spanish sample of patients with refractory POS in daily clinical practice. Methods: ESLIBASE is a multicenter observational collection of patients with partial epilepsy who started treatment with ESL after January 2011, based on clinical practice. Data were retrospectively collected in clinical charts of patients in 11 hospitals in Spain. Demographic and epilepsy data, seizure type, epilepsy syndrome, etiology, concomitant and prior antiepileptic drugs (AED) and number of seizures were obtained at baseline visit. Subsequently, information was obtained at 3,6 and 12 months after treatment initiation (efficacy, adverse effects and drug combinations). Results: Two hundred and fifty-three patients were included. The most common etiologies were cryptogenic partial epilepsy (35.5%) and mesial temporal sclerosis (11.7%). From the series 79.8% of patients had previously taken at least 2 AED. The main reason to start therapy with ESL was lack of response to prior AED (74%). Before starting ESL the mean epilepsy duration was 18.6 years and the average seizure frequency was 21 seizures/month. The seizure frequency variation was evaluated at 3 months in a subgroup of 253 patients, at 6 months in 194 patients and at 12 months in 146 patients. The dose range of ESL was 400 to 1600mg/daily.The proportion of responders (>50% reduction in seizure frequency) achieved at each time point was 47% (3 months), 54.8% (6 months) and 58.6% (12 months). The seizure-free rate was 19.7% (3 months), 24,5% (6 months) and 24,8% (12 months). Adverse effects had occurred at 3 months in 29.7% of patients (30.6% of these required withdrawing ESL). The most common adverse effect was dizziness.Conclusions: In our sample ESL proved to be a safe and effective drug for the treatment of partial epilepsy in clinical practice. Further series are needed to confirm these results.