Pilot Study: Valproic Acid Effectiveness in Minimizing Incidence of Seizures in Postoperative Pediatric Brain Tumor Patients

Purpose: To assess Valproic acid Effectiveness in postoperative seizure prophylaxis in pediatric brain tumor patients

Methods: A retrospective review of pediatric brain tumor patients was performed to evaluate the effect of VPA on postoperative seizure prophylaxis.  The patients were monitored for a period of 3 months postoperativly to determine whether VPA was effective in prophylaxis from seizures. The data collected included the patients’ age, sex, weight, prescribed antiepileptic drugs AED), platelet count, albumin ,liver enzymes, duration of VPA treatment, serum VPA  concentration and any other medications the patients were receiving. Any clinical intervention and any drug interaction were recorded.

Results: Sixty patients were eligible for this study, 27 patients received VPA and 33 received no AED.  Seven patients from the VPA group had a history of seizures compared to 2 patients only in the non-VPA group.  Postoperatively,  a total of 8 patients had seizures,  one patient in the VPA group with an onset of 36 days, and  6 patients in the non-VPA group with an average onset of 32 days.  Comparing the incidence of seizures postoperatively using Fisher’s exact test, the difference between the two groups was not statistically significantly different (p=0.11).

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Conclusion:

Although  VPA tended to reduce the incidence of seizure events and to delay the onset of seizures postoperatively in brain tumor patients, the difference did not reach statistical significance.  Further studies are needed to investigate this difference on a larger number of patients to examine whether the difference observed is real.