Keppra is an established anti-seizure medication given to people with epilepsy (defined as having more than one seizure), but its effectiveness for preventing seizures in patients after a brain injury had not been proven. (A subarachnoid hemorrhage, a type of bleeding stroke, occurs when blood seeps into the subarachnoid space between the brain and the skull.)ĭilantin has traditionally been the standard of care in preventing seizures, which afflict 25 to 30 percent of patients who have suffered a traumatic brain injury or subarachnoid hemorrhage. "We continue to make incremental, meaningful strides in the care of patients who are hospitalized in the NSICU following subarachnoid hemorrhage or traumatic brain injury," Shutter says. The published article was written by co-investigator Jerzy Szaflarski, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology. The study was led by Lori Shutter, MD, associate professor of neurosurgery and neurology and director of neurocritical care at UCNI. Seizures are common following severe brain injury, and minimizing or eliminating them is a primary objective of neurocritical care.
The study of anti-seizure medications in the neuroscience intensive care unit (NSICU) at UC Health University Hospital is part of a focused, ongoing effort to harness scientific evidence to improve treatments and outcomes for patients.
The study will be published in the April 2010 issue of the journal, Neurocritical Care it appeared online on Nov. Patients treated with Keppra also had improved long-term outcomes, the researchers found.
BEST ANTI STROKE MEDICATION PLUS
Five of these medications are evaluated in this report: aspirin, a fixed combination of aspirin plus extended-release dipyridamole (Aggrenox), clopidogrel (Plavix), prasugrel (Effient), and ticlopidine (Ticlid and generic).This randomized study supports earlier indications that the anti-seizure medication levetiracetam, marketed as Keppra, was as effective at preventing seizures as the traditional medication, phenytoin, marketed as Dilantin, while producing fewer negative side effects. This report evaluates the use of antiplatelet drugs in preventing heart attacks, strokes, and premature death in people who have acute coronary syndrome (unstable angina or had a heart attack), peripheral vascular disease, a stent, or previously had a stroke. In people whose arteries have narrowed from atherosclerosis-the "hardening of the arteries" that is the basis of coronary artery disease and peripheral artery disease (in the legs and neck, for example)-blood clumping and clotting can become dangerous. Some people might be prone to the formation of such clots. This lowers the risk that potentially harmful blood clots will form. Namely, they decrease the clumping of blood cells called platelets. Technically, they don't actually thin the blood instead, they interfere with an important part of the process by which the blood clots.
Your doctor might also refer to them as "blood thinning" drugs. These medications are widely used, primarily because aspirin is one of them. They work by reducing the formation of blood clots, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Antiplatelet drugs are used to lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes and to treat people who have artery blockages in their legs.
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