Using Sodium Valproate in Children <2 Years of Age: Study in a District Hospital, Dinajpur, Bangladesh

Introduction: Sodium valproate is proposed for addition to the Model List of Essential Medicines, for use in the management of epilepsy in children. This is effective in treating many seizure types, like a generalized tonic-clonic seizure, myoclonic seizure, absence seizure, in other epilepsy syndromes like an infantile spasm, Landau-Kleffner syndrome (LKS), etc. Aim of the study: This study aimed to observe the side effects caused by sodium valproate in children below 2 years of age. Methodology: An observational study was conducted in the Department of Paediatric M Abdur Rahim Medical College (MARMC), Dinajpur, Bangladesh, during the period of January 2019 to December 2019. Sixty (60) children < 2 the age of years with epilepsy were enrolled in this study. Enrollment was done after informed verbal consent from the mother or the attendant. Detail history was taken about demographic factors which include children’s age, age of onset of seizure, height, weight. Data were collected in a pre-designed questionnaire. The data was processed and analyzed by the application of SPSS version-22. Results: Male were dominated the gender distribution and were 54% and female were 46%. A maximum of 46% of patients was diagnosed with epilepsy between 6-12 months, Out of the total studied patients, the maximum 44% started sodium valproate ages between 7-12 months. Among the total studied patients 40% took 26-30mg/kg/day sodium valproate as their treatment regime. A total of 16% had anemia among the studied patients, whereas for the rest 84% of patients no other symptoms were found during their general examination. Among the total studied patients, the most dominating side effect of the patients was vomiting which resulted in 1/5th (20%) of all side effects. The side effects of both hair loss and loss of appetite show the same result of 10% for each whereas, only 4% and 2% had abdominal pain and weight gain respectively. Conclusion: In this study vomiting was found as the most significant side effect which similar to other different studies also. These findings may be helpful for future researchers in further research. It was a single centered study with a small-sized sample.