Fosphenytoin

Fosphenytoin (Cerebyx, Parke-Davis; Prodilantin, Pfizer Holding France) is a water-soluble phenytoin prodrug used only in hospitals for the treatment of epileptic seizures. On 18 November 2004, Sicor (a subsidiary of Teva) received a tentative approval letter from the United States Food and Drug Administration for a generic version of fosphenytoin. Fosphenytoin is approved in the United States for the short term (five days or less) treatment of e... more

Fosphenytoin (Cerebyx, Parke-Davis; Prodilantin, Pfizer Holding France) is a water-soluble phenytoin prodrug used only in hospitals for the treatment of epileptic seizures. On 18 November 2004, Sicor (a subsidiary of Teva) received a tentative approval letter from the United States Food and Drug Administration for a generic version of fosphenytoin. Fosphenytoin is approved in the United States for the short term (five days or less) treatment of epilepsy when more widely used means of phenytoin administration are not possible or are ill-advised, such as endotracheal intubation, status epilepticus or some other type of repeated seizures; vomiting, and/or the patient is unalert or not awake or both. In April 2003, Applebaum and colleagues at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba reported that even though anticonvulsants are often very effective in mania, and acute mania requires rapid treatment, fosphenytoin had no antimanic effect even 60 minutes after administration of... less