Abstracts

Rationale: Carbamazepine is one the most widely used antiepileptic in symptomatic epilepsy. In the era of the epilepsy surgery, carbamazepine serum level elevation was observed during the post operative period in months. Methods: Epilepsy surgery database of the Yeditepe University Hospital were retrospectively examined. Demographic variables including age and sex, etiology, location of the lesion, type of the surgery and pre and post operative daily carbamazepine and serum carbamazepine levels in months were collected. Results: Retrospective analysis of our database revealed 8 patients (5 male, 3 female) with a mean age; 28.75 ± 3.84. Five of the patients have mesial temporal sclerosis (2 left, 3 right) and 3 of the patients have left sided temporal lobe malignant lesion. Daily carbamazepine doses were 912.50 ± 279.98 preoperatively, and 812.50 ± 304.43 postoperatively. Serum carbamazepine levels were 6.74 ± 3.78 preoperatively and 9.07± 4.58 postoperatively. All patient were seizure free, in two patients who had less serum carbamezapine levels, EEG showed interictal EEG abnormalities. Conclusions: After epilepsy surgery, especially in seizure free patients and any interictal EEG abnormalities, serum carbamazepine levels became higher with preoperative carbamazepine dosages. It can be concluded that in patients with higher carbamazepine serum levels, the prognosis is better.