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Efficacy and Safety of Long-Term Treatment with Stiripentol in Children and Adults with Drug-Resistant Epilepsies: A Retrospective Cohort Study of 196 Patients

S. Balestrini, Viola Doccini, Alessandra Boncristiano, M. Lenge, S. De Masi, R. Guerrini

Drugs - Real World Outcomes, 2022

196 participants · 21 citations

Abstract

Stiripentol is an antiseizure medication with multiple potential mechanisms of action, indicated as adjunctive therapy in people with Dravet syndrome, whose seizures are not adequately controlled with clobazam and valproate. However, there are scattered data on its efficacy in other epilepsy aetiologies and types. We previously reported our single-centre experience on the efficacy of adjunctive stiripentol treatment in a cohort of 132 patients with different types of refractory epilepsies. We aimed to expand our analysis to a larger cohort of 196 patients with a long-term follow-up. We retrospectively evaluated long-term efficacy, tolerability and predictors of treatment response in 196 patients with a long-term follow-up (range 0.5–232.8 months). After an initial median follow-up of 3 months after stiripentol introduction, we observed a responder rate of 53% including seizure freedom in 9%. At subsequent follow-ups at 12 and 24 months, responder rates were 29% and 22%, respectively. Aetiology was associated with sustained response over time, with Dravet syndrome being the aetiology with the highest responder rate (64%) at 48 months compared with syndromes with other genetic causes (13%) or unknown aetiology (38%). A higher responder rate over time was also observed in patients with generalised (44%) and combined focal and generalised epilepsies (28%) than in patients with focal epilepsies (20%). The highest relapse free-survival was observed when stiripentol was initiated…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a cohort study, done in people. Its evidence level is 3 of 5 (Moderate · trial / cohort / secondary analysis). Trials without a large randomized design, cohorts and secondary analyses give moderate evidence. Reported size: 196 participants or records.

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