The current system of classifying cranial base meningiomas provides no information regarding the tumor except location and no information concerning patient prognosis. We present a more useful system to categorize these tumors. Our scheme must be tested at other centers to corroborate our findings. This new grading system should serve to guide surgical treatment, inform patients, and improve communication among surgeons.
Levetiracetam (LEV) has anti-epileptogenic effects in animals and is a candidate for prevention of epilepsy after traumatic brain injury. Pharmacokinetics of LEV in TBI patients are unknown. We report pharmacokinetics of TBI subjects ≥6 years with high PTE risk treated with LEV 55 mg/kg/day orally, nasogastrically or intravenously for 30 days starting ≤8 hours after injury in a phase 2 safety and pharmacokinetic study. 41 subjects (26 adults, 15 children) were randomized to PK studies on treatment days 3 and 30. 36/41 randomized subjects underwent PK study on treatment day 3, and 24/41 subjects on day 30. On day 3, mean Tmax was 2.2 hours, Cmax 60.2 μg/ml and AUC 403.7 h*/μg/ml. Tmax was longer in the elderly than in children and non-elderly adults (5.96 h vs. 1.5 h and 1.8 h, p=0.0001). AUC was non-significantly lower in children compared with adults and the elderly (317.4 h*/μg/ml vs. 461.4 and 450.2, p=0.08). Cmax trended higher in i.v.- versus tablet- or n.g.-treated subjects (78.4 μg/ml vs. 59 and 48.2, p=0.07). AUC for n.g. and i.v. administrations were 79% and 88% of oral administration. There were no significant PK differences between days 3 and 30. Treatment of TBI patients with high PTE risk with 55 mg/kg/day LEV, a dose with antiepileptogenic effect in animals, results in plasma LEV levels comparable to those in animal studies.
Background: Many post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) patients become resistant to medications. Nervous stimulation as a treatment for drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) is an active area of clinical investigation.Objective: To summarize methods, reported seizure control outcome measures, and adverse events from blinded, randomized control trials (RCTs) for selected invasive brain stimulation (IBS) and non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) treatment options in patients with DRE.Methods: PubMed was searched for articles from 1995-2014, using search terms related to the topics of interest. Available relevant articles reporting the outcomes of interest were identified and data was extracted. Articles in the reference lists of relevant articles and clinicaltrials.gov were also referenced.Results: Eleven articles were analyzed with a total of 795 patients identified. Studies showed that select nervous stimulation treatments significantly reduced seizure frequency in patients with DRE.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.