• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, October 31, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Alternative treatment for epileptic seizures in children identified

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
May 7, 2019
in Health
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

A new study published in The Lancet, involving researchers from the University of Liverpool and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital Trust, has identified a ‘user friendly’ treatment for the most common life-threatening neurological emergency in children.

Every day in the UK, 87 people are diagnosed with epilepsy, affecting over 600,000 people. Many people with a new diagnosis of epilepsy will experience memory and other cognitive problems. The cause of these problems is unknown.

It has an annual incidence of 20 per 100?000 children, and is the second most common reason for unplanned admissions to paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) in the UK.

Anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs), also known as anticonvulsants, are used to control seizures in people with epilepsy.

Convulsive status epilepticus (CSE) is the situation when a tonic-clonic seizure doesn’t stop either on its own or with anticonvulsants. It is the most common life-threatening neurological emergency in children.

Currently, CSE is treated using an algorithm which incorporates 10 min intervals between treatments. Second-line treatment is given when CSE persists either after two doses of the first-line treatment, which is an anticonvulsant called a benzodiazepine, or the child’s personalised emergency (rescue) treatment.

The anticonvulsant medication phenytoin has been used as the usual second-line treatment of CSE for several decades and is known to have rare but potentially dangerous side effects. However, some evidence suggests that another medication, levetiracetam could be an effective and safer alternative. To ascertain which treatment was safest and most effective the EcLiPSE Team, made up of doctors from Alder Hey and Bristol Children’s Hospitals together with research teams from the Universities of Liverpool and the West of England, conducted a trial to compare the efficacy and safety of both drugs for second-line management of CSE.

The EcLiPSE Team is led by Professor Richard Appleton, a Merseyside paediatric neurologist based at the University of Liverpool’s Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital Trust.

Between 2014 and 2018 the team conducted a randomised clinical trial involving 30 UK Emergency Departments and almost 300 children.

The results did not show that levetiracetam was better than phenytoin, in stopping CSE. However, overall the results suggest levetiracetam may be considered as an alternative treatment to phenytoin.

Professor Richard Appleton, said: “The EcLiPSE trial has given doctors new and unique evidence for the choice of anticonvulsant and how to best treat this childhood neurological emergency.

“Our results suggest that levetiracetam could be considered as an alternative treatment to phenytoin for second-line management of paediatric CSE. Possible benefits of levetiracetam over phenytoin include its ease of preparation and administration, minimal interaction with antiepilepsy and other drugs, and easy conversion to oral maintenance therapy. Further randomised clinical trial and meta-analysis data could help to confirm our results and might lead to levetiracetam being the preferred second-line anticonvulsant in children with benzodiazepine-resistant convulsive status epilepticus.

“The trial also highlights the importance of close and effective collaboration between two specialities in paediatrics, neurology and emergency medicine that will improve the care of children with epilepsy.”

###

The study was supported by PERUKI (Paediatric Emergency Research in the UK and Ireland) and funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) HTA (Health Technology Assessment) programme.

The full paper, entitled ‘Levetiracetam versus phenytoin for second-line treatment of paediatric convulsive status epilepticus (EcLiPSE): a multicentre, open-label, randomised trial, can be found here
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)30724-X/fulltext

Media Contact
Simon Wood
[email protected]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30724-X

Tags: Clinical TrialsCritical Care/Emergency MedicineHealth ProfessionalsMedicine/Healthneurobiology
Share13Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Diabetes Fatalism: Impact on Outcomes in African Americans

October 31, 2025

Assessing Ergonomics in Special Needs Kindergarten Settings

October 31, 2025

Prenatal Probiotics: Boosting Neonatal Gut Development

October 31, 2025

Groundbreaking Study Reveals Harmful ‘Forever Chemicals’ Contaminating Australian Marsupials

October 31, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Sperm MicroRNAs: Crucial Mediators of Paternal Exercise Capacity Transmission

    1292 shares
    Share 516 Tweet 323
  • Stinkbug Leg Organ Hosts Symbiotic Fungi That Protect Eggs from Parasitic Wasps

    312 shares
    Share 125 Tweet 78
  • ESMO 2025: mRNA COVID Vaccines Enhance Efficacy of Cancer Immunotherapy

    202 shares
    Share 81 Tweet 51
  • New Study Suggests ALS and MS May Stem from Common Environmental Factor

    136 shares
    Share 54 Tweet 34

About

BIOENGINEER.ORG

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Efficient H2O2 Production Boosted by Cobalt-Enhanced Phosphate-Functionalized Reduced Graphene Oxide/Perylenetetracarboxylic Acid Nanosheet Heterojunctions

Diabetes Fatalism: Impact on Outcomes in African Americans

Haplotype Analysis Links Regulatory Variants to Citrus Traits

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 67 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.