Long-term Outcome of Intravenous Lidocaine in Pediatric Cluster Seizures: A Preliminary Study.

BACKGROUND: Cluster seizures are life-threatening conditions. They may easily evolve into status epilepticus and are reported in up to 20% to 30% of patients with epilepsy. Sometimes cluster seizures become drug resistant, leading to the use of unconventional therapies. One of these unconventional approaches may be the use of lidocaine, which is a sodium-channel-blocking drug mostly known as a local anesthetic and antiarrhythmic agent.

METHODS: We describe the outcome of four children who were treated with continuous intravenous infusion of 2% lidocaine due to drug-resistant focal cluster seizures. Lidocaine was administered as an initial dose of 1 mg/kg/hour and, subsequently, was increased to 2 to 4 mg/kg/hour. The therapy was continued for five to 10 days. Patients remained under careful cardiological surveillance during the treatment.

RESULTS: Complete seizure remission was achieved in all four children. None of the patients experienced adverse events. Although seizures recurred in all patients within an average time of 2.4 months, they appeared with reduced frequency, and within the follow-up period (mean 7.5 months) no additional cluster seizures occurred.

CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with lidocaine in pediatric cluster seizures may be useful and may be considered as a therapeutic option. Our patients encountered no side effects and experienced prolonged seizure remission, possibly resulting from the effect of lidocaine on sodium channels or from its anti-inflammatory properties. However, more studies are required to confirm the safety and long-term effectiveness of this approach. Clinicians should be aware of possible adverse effects and necessity of sustained cardiological surveillance during the treatment.