Abstracts

Rationale: To evaluate the prevalence of drug-resistant epilepsies among children and adolescents with epilepsy. Methods: All epilepsy patients who entered the Developmental Neurology Departments (In and Outpatients Clinics) in the period between 01.10.2008 - 01.10.2009. were included in the study and followed prospectively. 1053 children and adolescents with dagnosed and treatet epilepsy entered the study. The diagnostic criteria for drug resistant epilepsy were : failure of adequate trials of two tolerated and appropriately chosen and used AED schedules (whether as monotherapies or in combination) to achieve sustained seizure freedom. Results: 49% of patients fulfilled the criteria for drug-resistant epilepsy. The most common types of seizures among drug-resistant patients were complex partial seizures or polymorphic generalized seizures (tonic, tonic-clonic and myoclonic). Conclusions: This large population based study shows according to recently proposed definition (Kwan et al. 2010) the surprisingly high incidence of drug-reistant epilepsies among children and adolescents. Kwan, P., Arzimanoglou, A., Berg, A.T. et al. Definition of drug resistant epilepsy. Consensus proposal by the ad hoc Task Force of the ILAE Commission on Therapeutic Strategies (2010) Epilepsia