Symptomatic Epileptic Seizures in Patients with Brain Gliomas

Abstract

Introduction. Epileptic seizures are an important problem that significantly worsens the quality of patients’ life with both newly diagnosed and recurrent brain gliomas.Review. The analysis of domestic and foreign literature showed that low-grade gliomas, this symptom occurs on average in 76%, with high-grade gliomas – in 21% of patients. Despite the maximum allowable tumor resection, it is likely that epileptic seizures persist in 18-64% of patients, and in 5% of patients they first appear in the postoperative period. From 15 to 50% of epileptic seizures in cerebral gliomas are drug-resistant. In patients undergoing chemotherapy, it is better to use new antiepileptic drugs because their cross-effects are minimal.Conclusion. There is no generally accepted algorithm for prescribing and discontinuing antiepileptic drugs in patients with symptomatic epileptic seizures with cerebral gliomas. Further research is needed to determine the optimal combination and dosage regimen of antiepileptic drugs, especially during chemotherapy.

Keywords

• glioma
• epileptic seizures
• glioblastoma
• convulsive seizures
• symptomatic epilepsy
• drug-resistant epilepsy
• brain tumor