Levetiracetam Versus Sodium Valproate in Children With Refractory Generalized Convulsive Status Epilepticus

This study is a randomized, open label, parallel group,comparing the safety and efficacy of valproate and levetiracetam in patients of age group 1 to 16 years with status epilepticus not responded to phenytoin and benzodiazepines approaching to pediatric emergency , IMS, BHU. The primary outcome measures will be Proportion of children in either group who have Cessation of all clinical seizure within 30 min of drug administration and secondary outcome will be time taken to control seizure (minutes) from the initiation of infusion. Proportion of children in either group who required additional drugs to abort ongoing clinical seizures, rates of adverse events (hypotension, bradycardia, respiratory depression, PICU stay, in hospital mortality) in the two groups were measured. Refractory status epilepticus condition is major pediatric neurological emergency with high mortality and morbidity. Till now, the treatment guidelines for it are based primarily on retrospective studies with very few randomized studies. There is lack of sufficient data to recommend one drug over another for treatment of refractory status epilepticus.