A granulocytosis associated with rufinamide: A case report

Rufinamide, a triazole derivative, is a novel antiepileptic drug (AED) chemically unrelated to other current AEDs. Previous studies on pediatric epilepsy treatment with rufinamide have demonstrated a frequency of leukopenia as an adverse event of 0.5%, and there has been no report of the development of agranulocytosis. Here, we report a patient with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) who developed agranulocytosis associated with fever and skin rash with rufinamide. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of agranulocytosis induced by rufinamide.

A 10-year-old boy with a history of herpes encephalitis at the age of 1 year developed LGS, and was administered rufinamide as add-on therapy to valproate, lamotrigine, and clonazepam because of difficulties in controlling tonic seizures. Eighteen days after initiation of rufinamide, agranulocytosis developed associated with high fever and skin rash, all of which resolved after withdrawal of rufinamide. Bone marrow aspiration demonstrated normocellular marrow with selective decrease of mature myeloid series, and suggested that agranulocytosis was not related to malignancy or serious infection.

This case suggests that rufinamide may induce the potentially serious adverse effect of agranulocytosis. Patients should be monitored for clinical signs of agranulocytosis and consideration should be given to routine blood count determination for early detection of this.