Anticonvulsants use in traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Objective. Verifying the indications for use of anticonvulsants in patients suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI), evaluating the harms and benefits of using different anticonvulsant drugs described. Method. Literature review was performed using MEDLINE and SciELO databases using the terms: “Post Traumatic Epilepsy”, “Cra­niocerebral Trauma”, “Anticonvulsants”, “Post-Traumatic Epilepsy”, “Craniocerebral trauma “and” Anticonvulsants “. Studies focusing both for prophylactic and therapeutic use of anticonvulsant drugs in TBI were included. The most relevant articles by number of citations that resulted from the research were selected comprised between the years 1980 and 2014. Results. Several authors have studied the use of anticonvulsant drugs for prophylaxis or therapy in TBI. Some au­thors have demonstrated the risk of developing post traumatic seizures in relation to the type of brain injury presented and severity of the trauma. Conclusion. Most of the articles show no benefit in perform­ing anticonvulsant prophylaxis for more than seven days after trauma. More randomized trials with a significant sample of patients should be conducted in order to compare the effect of different antiepileptic drugs in both prophylaxis and treatment of posttraumatic epilepsy and its impact on quality of life of these patients and also in the mor­bidity and mortality of the same.