What is phenytoin used for?
What is phenytoin used for?
Descriptions. Phenytoin is used to control seizures (convulsions), including tonic-clonic (grand mal) and psychomotor (temporal lobe) seizures, in the treatment of epilepsy. It is also used to prevent and treat seizures that occur during brain surgery.
What are the side effects of phenytoin?
Side effects of phenytoin
- Headaches. Make sure you rest and drink plenty of fluids.
- Feeling drowsy, sleepy or dizzy. As your body gets used to phenytoin, these side effects should wear off.
- Feeling nervous, unsteady or shaky.
- Feeling or being sick (nausea or vomiting)
- Constipation.
- Sore or swollen gums.
What type of seizure is phenytoin used for?
Phenytoin is an anti-epileptic drug, also called an anticonvulsant. Phenytoin works by slowing down impulses in the brain that cause seizures. Phenytoin is used to control seizures. It does not treat all types of seizures, and your doctor will determine if it is the right medicine for you.
What class of drug is phenytoin?
Dilantin is a prescription medicine used to treat the symptoms of seizures as a anticonvulsant. Dilantin may be used alone or with other medications. Dilantin belongs to a class of drugs called Anticonvulsants, Hydantoins; Antidysrhythmics, Ib.
Can phenytoin cause brain damage?
Especially susceptible to the neurotoxic effects of phenytoin are epileptic children with severe brain damage who are on multiple drugs. In those children, balance disturbance may develop and be followed by gradual loss of locomotion.
Does phenytoin affect blood pressure?
In previous decades, several patients experienced adverse effects of intravenous phenytoin such as severe heart arrhythmias and decrease of blood pressure.
What should you avoid when taking phenytoin?
Other Interactions Certain medicines should not be used at or around the time of eating food or eating certain types of food since interactions may occur. Using alcohol or tobacco with certain medicines may also cause interactions to occur.
Is gabapentin a phenytoin?
Neurontin (gabapentin) is an old seizure disorder medicine that is now used to treat nerve-related pain caused by different conditions. Treats and prevents seizures. Dilantin (phenytoin) is very good at treating and preventing seizures, but it has many drug interactions and some serious side effects.
Is phenytoin a sodium channel blocker?
The mechanism of action of phenytoin, which is used widely in the treatment of epilepsy as a sodium channel blocker, has been known for some time. Phenytoin binds to and blocks active sodium channels, reducing the number of open channels along an axon or cell body.
Does phenytoin cause memory loss?
All drugs that depress signaling in the CNS can cause memory loss. Alternatives: Many patients with seizures do well on phenytoin (Dilantin), which has little if any impact on memory. Many patients with chronic nerve pain find that venlafaxine (Effexor) — which also spares memory — alleviates their pain.
Can phenytoin affect the heart?
Phenytoin is a frequently used antiepileptic medication for the treatment of seizure disorder. The common side effects include nausea, rash, gingival hypertrophy, osteomalacia, and confusion. The potential to cause cardiac rhythm disturbances, hypotension, and cardiac arrest is rarely recognized.
Why is dental care so important when taking phenytoin?
In some patients (usually younger patients), tenderness, swelling, or bleeding of the gums (gingival hyperplasia) may appear soon after phenytoin treatment is started. To help prevent this, brush and floss your teeth carefully and regularly and massage your gums.
Can gabapentin stop seizures?
Gabapentin is used to help control partial seizures (convulsions) in the treatment of epilepsy. This medicine cannot cure epilepsy and will only work to control seizures for as long as you continue to take it.
Why is gabapentin used?
Gabapentin is in a class of medications called anticonvulsants. Gabapentin treats seizures by decreasing abnormal excitement in the brain. Gabapentin relieves the pain of PHN by changing the way the body senses pain.
What are the long term side effects of phenytoin?
– overgrowth of the gums (in children and young adults during long-term therapy), – sexual dysfunction (such as decreased libido, impotence, and painful, prolonged erections), – darkened skin coloration (more commonly in women), and – unusual hair growth that may be irreversible.
What does the name phenytoin mean?
problems with walking and coordination
Why is phenytoin sometimes taken at night?
– If you are pregnant, trying for a baby or breastfeeding. – If you have any problems with the way your liver works. – If you have a rare inherited blood disorder called porphyria. – If you have ever had an allergic reaction to a medicine. – If you are taking any other medicines.
What is Phenytoin also called?
Phenytoin is an anti-epileptic drug, also called an anticonvulsant. Phenytoin works by slowing down impulses in the brain that cause seizures. Phenytoin is used to control seizures. It does not treat all types of seizures, and your doctor will determine if it is the right medicine for you.