Prevention of Post-traumatic Seizures With Levetiracetam
Prevention of Post-traumatic Seizures With Levetiracetam
Post-traumatic seizures can appear frequently after a severe traumatic brain injury. Two
 types of seizures are usually identified: early seizures during the week following the trauma
 and late epilepsy afterward. Several antiepileptic drugs are usually used to prevent early
 seizures but no treatment has demonstrated any preventive effect against late epilepsy.
 Levetiracetam is an antiepileptic drug usually used for the treatment of epileptic patients
 and has pharmacologic properties that could also be interesting for the prevention of
 post-traumatic epilepsy.
Inclusion Criteria:

 1. Age >= 18 years old

 2. Patient with severe brain injury defined as follow:

 -  Initial Glasgow Coma score (assessed on the scene of the accident) <= 8 related
 to the brain injury

 -  Stage 2 to 4 on the TDM US TCDB classification

 3. Initial brain CT scan performed within 48 hours after hospital admission

 4. Either a male or a nonpregnant, non-lactating female who is using adequate
 contraceptive method (a urine laboratory pregnancy test must be negative at baseline)

 5. Written informed consent from the patient's next-of-kin. If no relative is present as
 the time of inclusion, the patients will be included according to the emergency
 procedure

 Exclusion Criteria:

 1. Isolated extradural hematoma

 2. Medical decision to limit patient's care (terminal stage of a cancer, hematological
 malignancies, HIV, etc.)

 3. Current participation in an other protocol or within one month before study entry

 4. Previous treatment with Levetiracetam

 5. Patient's follow-up judged to be difficult by the investigator

 6. Known allergy to either Levetiracetam or products derived from pyrrolidone or one of
 its excipients

 7. Epileptic patient treated or not (except patients treated with benzodiazepines who can
 be included in this protocol)