Lack of efficacy of phenytoin in the syndrome of inappropriate anti-diuretic hormone secretion of neurological origin.

Phenytoin has been proposed in the management of patients with the syndrome of inappropriate secretion of anti-diuretic hormone (SIADH) of neurological origin who fail to respond to water restriction. We have conducted a prospective study in order to evaluate the role of phenytoin in the management of seven consecutive patients with SIADH of neurological origin which could not be controlled by limited water intake. Only one patient was successfully treated with chronic phenytoin regimen. This patient, like one previously reported, had suffered a basal skull fracture. It seems likely that in the majority of cases of SIADH of neurological origin phenytoin is ineffective on a long-term basis.