Use of prophylactic anticonvulsants in neurologic critical care: A critical appraisal

Kenneth C. Liu, Anish Bhardwaj

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

Seizures are commonly encountered in the setting of brain injury in neurologic critical care. Though seizure prophylaxis with the use of antiepileptic drugs is frequently utilized in variety of brain injury paradigms, it is often not based on evidence and is controversial. Significant difficulties arise from interpretation of supporting literature due to lack of definitions for early-vs.-late-seizures, variable end points with seizure prophylaxis, as well as methodologic inconsistencies for seizure detection. This descriptive review summarizes the existing literature on the use of prophylactic anticonvulsants in clinical paradigms commonly encountered in neurologic critical care and highlights the important controversies concerning their use.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)175-184
Number of pages10
JournalNeurocritical Care
Volume7
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2007
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Anticonvulsants
  • Epilepsy
  • Neurologic critical care
  • Seizures

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine
  • Clinical Neurology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Use of prophylactic anticonvulsants in neurologic critical care: A critical appraisal'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this