Background: Tramadol, an analgesic drug abused by opioid addicts, is also abused accidentally or for suicidal purposes. Tramadol poisoning can induce CNS depression, seizures, coma, and ultimately death. Case: In this report, a 30-year-old male was admitted to the emergency department due to suicidal attempt with ingestion of 14000 mg (140 tablet 100 mg) of tramadol. He had history of suicidal...

Eight children with pyridoxine-dependent seizures (PDS) were seen over a period of 10 years. Of those children, 6 are on regular follow-up. Four of the children were seen in one family. All the patients presented with refractory seizures, mainly neonatal status epilepticus. Though PDS is a rare condition, it must be considered in all cases with refractory seizures, particularly in children youn...

New onset refractory status epilepticus (NORSE) is a relatively newly defined disease entity, where otherwise healthy individuals develop unrelenting seizures that do not respond to conventional anticonvulsant therapy and may require months of therapy with anesthetic drugs. We have described a case of NORSE who subsequently developed mesial temporal lobe sclerosis (MTS) and recurrent temporal l...

Objective: To evaluate the therapeutic effect of the use of immunoglobulin in patients with refractory epilepsy. Methods: Twenty patients with refractory epilepsy were treated with immunoglobulin therapy. Results: Five patients became free from seizures. Thirteen patients improved 50-80% and two patients had no reduction in number of seizures. Conclusions: All patients benefited significantly a...

PURPOSE To evaluate the efficacy of levetiracetam in cases of refractory primary generalised epilepsy. METHODS Three patients with refractory primary generalised epilepsy were treated with levetiracetam monotherapy; one with absence seizures, myoclonic jerks and generalised tonic-clonic (GTC) seizures one with myoclonic jerks and GTC seizures, and one with only GTC seizures. All three patient...

PURPOSE To investigate early predictors (6 months after diagnosis) of refractory epilepsy. METHODS STUDY DESIGN prospective cohort study. INCLUSION CRITERIA all consecutive children <14 years with two or more unprovoked seizures 24h apart, who were seen at our hospital between 1994 and 2004. EXCLUSION CRITERIA patients previously examined in other centres. DEFINITIONS refractory epil...