A comparative study between Sabril (Vigabatrin) and ACTH in treatment of infantile spasms

Infantile spasms (IS) is an age specific epileptic syndrome. With respect to poor response of IS to conventional anti-epileptic drugs, scientists tend to find new effective drugs. In this study, 50 infants with IS in the age group of 2-24 months, were divided randomly into 2 equal groups, treated with sabril or ACTH and compared for clinical efficacy and drug side effects. After 6 week of treatment is sabril group there was 28% complete remission and 40% reduction in seizure frequencies while in ACTH group there was 40.9% complete remission and 45.5% reduction in seizure frequencies, showing no significant difference between clinical responses in the two groups. Drug side effects were seen in 16% of patients in sabril group and 81.8% of those in ACTH group. These differences were significant from statistical point of view. Unfortunately, it is impossible to evaluate visual field constriction, a probable irreversible side effect of sabril. This justified the use ACTH as the first line of treatment in IS.