Pregnancy outcomes in women with epilepsy: A systematic review and meta-analysis of published pregnancy registries and cohorts

• Published in: Epilepsy research Vol. 81; no. 1; pp. 1 - 13
• Main Authors: Meador, Kimford, Reynolds, Matthew W, Crean, Sheila, Fahrbach, Kyle, Probst, Corey
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-09-2008; Elsevier
• Subjects: Abnormalities, Drug-Induced - epidemiology; Adult; Anti-epileptic drugs; Anticonvulsants; Anticonvulsants - adverse effects; Anticonvulsants. Antiepileptics. Antiparkinson agents; Biological and medical sciences; Cohort Studies; Congenital malformations; Data Interpretation, Statistical; Databases, Factual; Drug Therapy, Combination; Epilepsy; Epilepsy - complications; Epilepsy - epidemiology; Female; Fetus; Headache. Facial pains. Syncopes. Epilepsia. Intracranial hypertension. Brain oedema. Cerebral palsy; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Male; Medical sciences; MEDLINE; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Neurology; Neuropharmacology; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications - epidemiology; Registries; Risk Factors; Pregnancy; Anti-epileptic drugs; Fetus; Anticonvulsants; Congenital malformations; Epilepsy; Human; Nervous system diseases; Prognosis; Congenital; Anticonvulsant; Cerebral disorder; Malformation; Central nervous system disease
• ISSN: 0920-1211; 1872-6844
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2008.04.022

Summary Purpose To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to quantify the incidence of congenital malformations (CMs) and other pregnancy outcomes as a function of in utero anti-epileptic drug (AED) exposure. Methods We performed a systematic literature review to identify all published registries and cohort studies of births from pregnant women with epilepsy (WWE) that reported incidence of CMs. Overall incidences were calculated using a random effects model. Results The review included 59 studies that met inclusion/exclusion criteria, involving 65,533 pregnancies in WWE and 1,817,024 in healthy women. The calculated incidence of births with CM in WWE [7.08%; 95% CIs 5.62, 8.54] was higher than healthy women [2.28%; CIs 1.46, 3.10]. Incidence was highest for AED polytherapy [16.78%; CIs 0.51, 33.05]. The AED with the highest CM incidence was valproate, which was 10.73% [CIs 8.16, 13.29] for valproate monotherapy. Conclusions Results of this systematic literature review suggest that the overall incidence of CMs in children born of WWE is approximately threefold that of healthy women. The risk is elevated for all AED monotherapy and further elevated for AED polytherapy compared to women without epilepsy. The risk was significantly higher for children exposed to valproate monotherapy and to polytherapy of 2 or more drugs when the polytherapy combination included phenobarital, phenytoin, or valproate. Further research is needed to delineate the specific risk for each individual AED and to determine underlying mechanisms including genetic risk factors.