Effectiveness and Safety of Oxcarbazepine vs. Levetiracetam as Monotherapy for Infantile Focal Epilepsy: A Longitudinal Cohort Study

The present longitudinal cohort study shows that OXC as monotherapy for focal-onset epilepsy in infancy was significantly more effective for achieving seizure freedom and a 12-month retention rate than LEV, especially for patients aged < 1 year and diagnosed with SLIE or NSE. Furthermore, OXC was generally well-tolerated in infants, with most AEs rated as mild in severity and only one patient discontinuing OXC due to medication-induced hypersensitivity syndrome. To our knowledge, this is the first study comparing the effectiveness of OXC and LEV in infantile epilepsy, the most two common ASMs for focal seizures, which suggests that OXC could be an alternative to LEV for treating infantile focal epilepsy, due to the apparent higher efficacy and well-tolerated adverse reactions.