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Early Discontinuation of Phenobarbital After Acute Symptomatic Neonatal Seizures in the Term Newborn.

Melisa CarrascoSonia Lomeli BonifacioGabrielle A deVeberVann Chau
Published in: Neurology. Clinical practice (2023)
Acute symptomatic seizures in the term newborn are often seen after perinatal brain injury. Common etiologies include hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, ischemic stroke, intracranial hemorrhage, metabolic derangements, and intracranial infections. Neonatal seizures are often treated with phenobarbital, which may cause sedation and may have significant long-term effects on brain development. Recent literature has suggested that phenobarbital may be safely discontinued in some patients before discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit. Optimizing a strategy for selective early phenobarbital discontinuation would be of great value. In this study, we present a unified framework for phenobarbital discontinuation after resolution of acute symptomatic seizures in the setting of brain injury of the newborn.
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