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Review
. 2017 Jun 30;7(1):21-24.
doi: 10.14581/jer.17004. eCollection 2017 Jun.

Can Therapeutic-Range Chronic Phenytoin Administration Cause Cerebellar Ataxia?

Hye-Jin Moon  1 , Beomseok Jeon  2
Affiliations
Review

Can Therapeutic-Range Chronic Phenytoin Administration Cause Cerebellar Ataxia?

Hye-Jin Moon et al. J Epilepsy Res. .

Abstract

Phenytoin (PHT) is a first line antiepileptic drug (AED) used to treat many epilepsy syndromes. As with other AEDs, there are various adverse effects associated with PHT. For this brief review, we searched for evidence of cerebellar ataxia as a chronic adverse effect of therapeutic-range PHT treatment. Many previous studies appeared related to this issue, but many of those studies were designed to resolve questions related to the persistent residual effects of toxic-range PHT therapy, or they were inconclusive due to an absence of critical information such as PHT serum concentration, cerebellar symptoms/signs, and other factors contributing to cerebellar degeneration. Nevertheless, there were a few reports suggesting that cerebellar ataxia may be a chronic adverse effect of therapeutic-range PHT therapy and that a possible pathomechanism for that effect is folate deficiency. Moreover, there is the possibility that there may be patient-specific susceptibility factors affecting ataxia. Further studies are needed to elucidate the incidence, risk factors, and pathomechanism of cerebellar ataxia as a chronic adverse effect of therapeutic-range PHT treatment.

Keywords: Adverse effect; Antiepileptic drug; Cerebellar ataxia; Phenytoin.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest None of the authors has any conflict of interest to disclose. We confirm that we have read the Journal’s position on issues involved in ethical publication and affirm that this report is consistent with those guidelines.

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