Objective: To describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of pediatric patients diagnosed with refractory epilepsy treated at the Hospital Nacional Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru.

Methods: This is a prospective and observational study. Consecutively attending patients were enrolled according to the following criteria: (1) aged under 14; (2) established diagnosis of epilepsy; (3) pharmacoresistance to two or more appropriate AEDs. This study was initiated on October 1, 2013 and will end on March 31, 2014.

Results: At the time of this preliminary report, a total of 27 patients were enrolled representing 25 % of children treated for epilepsy. Mean age was 8.2 years. 37% were female. The majority of patient (70.4%) had symptomatic or cryptogenic epilepsies: Brain malformations were the most common etiology (18.5%), followed by congenital infections (7.4%) and stroke (7.4%).

The most common type of epilepsy among 27 children was non-syndromic generalized epilepsy (30.8%), followed by focal epilepsy (26.9%), Lennox-Gaastaut Syndrome (19.2%), and West Syndrome (7.7%).

At enrollment, 25.9% of patients were on AED monotherapy, 51.2% of children received two AEDs and 25.9% received three AEDs. Valproic acid (66.7%), carbamazepine (37%), lamotrigine (33.3%), and phenobarbital (22.2%) were the most commonly prescribed AEDs.

Learning disorders (88.9%), mental retardation (85.2%), and cerebral palsy (40.7%) were the most frequent comorbidities.

16% of patients had at least one hospitalization for status epilepticus in the last year.

Conclusions: We describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the first reported series of children with refractory epilepsy in Lima, Peru.