Ketogenic diet therapy effective for children with drug-resistant epilepsy: Study

Based on the study, the researchers reported the following:

· Classic KD was chosen for 77.8% of the patients, and MAD for 22.2% of patients.

· The response to KD therapy (≥50% reduction) was 55.5%, and one patient even became seizure-free.

· By the 12th month of treatment, 10 patients had experienced a reduction of more than 50% in epileptiform discharges, as indicated by EEG findings.

· There was no difference in seizure reduction between the patients who received classical KD and MAD.

· A total of 11.1% of the children lost weight during KD treatment.

· The most common side effect was constipation (n = 10, 55.6%).

· At the end of one year of treatment, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) LDL-C levels had increased dramatically, while fasting blood glucose levels had decreased significantly.

"Our findings indicate that KD treatment provides good clinical efficacy in the treatment of pediatric DRE, and can significantly reduce the frequency of epileptic discharges," the researchers wrote. "Also, LDL-C and total cholesterol levels increased significantly, and fasting blood glucose levels decreased significantly compared to the baseline levels."

Reference:

Yıldırım, Gonca Kılıç, et al. "Evaluation of Ketogenic Diet Therapy in Children Diagnosed With Drug-resistant Epilepsy: a Single-center Experience." The Turkish Journal of Pediatrics, vol. 64, no. 3, 2022, pp. 435-445.