Abstracts

Lamictal is an approved antiepileptic drug used as add-on-therapy for partial seizures in the adult and pediatric population. It has also been approved as initial monotherapy in adults newly diagosed with seizures, as well as conversion of Lamictal add-on-therapy to monotherapy in adults with partial sizures. Serious rashes requiring hospitalization and discontinuation of treatment, have been reported with the use of Lamictal. The incidence of these rashed is about 0.8% in the pediatirc population (age 16 and under) and 0.3% in adults receiving Lamictal as adjunctive therapy for epilepsy. Other then age, there are no known factors that could be identifyers in predicting the rash occurrence. Nearly all cases of serious rashes have occurred within 2-8 weeks of initiation of treatment. However, rare cases have been reported after prolonged treatment., To date, a retrospective analysis of 151 medical records identified 22 adults and 4 pediatric patients (age 16 and under) on Lamictal therapy admitted for inpatient VEEG monitoring since November 2002., The 22 adults or 14.57% of the admitted population, had an average hospital length of stay of 3.2 days and were receiving an average daily dose of Lamictal 400 mgm. The 4 pediatric patients or 2.65 % of the admitted population, had an average hospital lenth of stay of 7.2 days and were receiving an average daily dose of Lamictal 450 mgm. Upon discharge and dose resumption, none of the patients displayed any evidence of rash., In this study, we saw that both adult and pediatric patients can have their Lamictal dose discontinued and reintroduced without the emergence of a serious rash. Data collection is ongoing and needs to have similar outcomes to validate these outcomes.,