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Table 8 Details of numbers of dogs, pre- and post- treatment seizure frequency, period of treatment, doses of AED(s), seizure frequency reduction/response after the initiation of treatment and efficacy statements for each study

From: Treatment in canine epilepsy – a systematic review

References Nafe et al.[25] Govendir et al.[21] Platt et al.[22]
AED evaluated Sodium Valproate Gabapentin
2 nd AED PB (11 dogs) Primidone (6 dogs) PB (24 dogs) - PB (17 dogs) PB (11 dogs)
3 rd AED Phenytoin (11 dogs) - - - PBr (16 dogs) PBr (11 dogs)
4 th AED - - - - - -
No of dogs 11 6 24 16 17 11
Period of treatment (months) mean, 4.9; range, 1-8   4 3
Dose of AED(s) (mg/kg) range 25–40 PO SID (PB and Phenytoin doses were not reported) range, 30–45 PO SID; Primidone: NA range, 30–110 PO SID; PB: NA range, 25–105 PO SID median, 35; range, 32–40 PO SID; PB: median, 8; range, 6–12 PO SID; PBr: median, 24; range, 14–30 PO SID mean, 10.9; 9.3-13.6 PO TID; PB and PBr: NA but were within normal reference values based on the serum levels
Pre-treatment SF (seizures/month) mean, 2.7 (period was not recorded) median, 2; range, 1–4 (recorded over a period of median 1.5 years) median, 6; 2–140 (recorded over a period of 3 m)
Post-treatment SF (seizures/month) NA median, 1; range, 0.5-3 median, 2; range, 0-4
No of dogs that were failures 4/11 (36%) 3/6 (50%) 8/24 (34%) 9/16 (56%) 6/17 (35%) 1/11 (9%)
No of dogs with >0% - <50% reduction in SF 1/11 (9%) 2/6 (33%) 2/24 (8%) 7/16 (44%) 1/17 (6%) 4/11 (36%)
No of dogs with ≥50% - <100% reduction in SF 6/11 (55%) 1/6 (17%) 14/24 (58%) 7/16 (44%) 7/17 (42%) 6/11 (55%)
No of dogs with 100% reduction in SF - - - - 3/17 (17%) -
No of dogs with >30% reduction in SF 6/11 (55%) 1/6 (17%) 14/24 (58%) 7/16 (44%) 10/17 (59%) 9/11 (82%)
95% CI successfully treated cases 30% - 84% −13% - 47% 38% - 78% 20% - 68% 36% - 82% 26% - 84%
Overall evidence for/against recommending the use of an AED Insufficient evidence for recommending the use of sodium valproate either as a monotherapy or an adjunct AED. Insufficient evidence for recommending the use of gabapentin as an adjunct AED.
  1. AED(s), anti-epileptic drug(s); BID, bis in die (twice daily); Chloraz, Chlorazepate; CSF, cerebrospinal fluid; CL, confidence level; Diaz, Diazepam; Gaba, Gabapentin; IE, idiopathic epilepsy; LEV, Levetiracetam; m, month(s); NA, Not Available; PB, phenobarbital; PBr, potassium bromide; PO, per os; SF, seizure frequency; SID, semel in die (once daily); TID, ter in die (three times daily); TPM, Topiramate; w, week(s).
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BMC Veterinary Research

ISSN: 1746-6148

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