Pregnancy And Delivery In Patients Treated With Antiepileptic Drugs

Abstract

We reported results of pregnancies in 50 cases of epileptic mothers treated at the department of EEG center, Nagoya National Hospital between Apr.1973 and Mar.1983 According to the international classification of epilepsy, the patients were classified into 26 cases of complex partial epilepsy, 4 cases of simple partial epilepsy, 14 cases of primary generalized epilepsy, 1 case of secondary generalized epilepsy and 5 cases of unclassified epilepsy. Ages when they became pregnant ranged from 19 to 35 and the average was 25.7 years old. Except for artificial abortions, numbers of pregnancy were from 1 to 4 in each case, and a total number of pregnancy was 83. Following results were obtained from theses materials. (1) The incidence of spontaneous abortion was 19.3% (16 cases) and that of congenital malformation was 9.0% (6 cases). The lesions of congenital malformation were 2 cases of atrial septal defect and the other four cases were torticollis, retentio testis, spina bifida and cleft lip and palate. (2) The risk of spontaneous abortion was related to the high frequency of convulsive seizures during pregnancy. (3) The risk of both spontaneous abortion and teratogenesis increased as the number of anticonvulsive drugs increased, and ratio of malformation for one drug, two drugs and more than three drugs were 0%, 14.8%, and 22.2%, respectively. (4) Teratogenic risk of TMO was remarkably high compared with that of the other drugs. (5) Average daily dose of each antiepileptic drug in cases of congenital anomalies tended to increase compared to cases without congenital anomaly. © 1984, Japanese Society of National Medical Services. All rights reserved.