Abstract

Ketogenic diet is a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet used in children as a non-pharmacological treatment in different diseases (especially in drug-resistant epilepsies and congenital metabolic disorders). Our first objective was to describe the characteristics of the patients treated with ketogenic diet in a tertiary hospital, in addition to reflecting the results and its complications in a short, medium and long term.
We designed a retrospective and descriptive study, collecting children between 0 and 14 years old, who started ketogenic diet after January 2017 in our centre (at that date we designed a following-up protocol).
9 children were included. All of them (100%) had epileptic disorders and had previously been treated with more than two antiepileptic drugs. All patients (100%) were evaluated by a multidisciplinary team (a pediatric neurologist, a pediatric gastroenterologist and a nutritionist) in a first visit. The kind of ketogenic diet and the method of beginning were chosen depending on individual and family characteristics. The most commonly used diet was the standard ketogenic diet (77,7%). 66,7% of patients started the diet at home, without complications.
Out of all side effects registered, the asymptomatic or mild hypoglycaemia was the most frequently observed (100%); followed by gastrointestinal symptoms (88.9%) and micronutrient deficiencies (77,78%).
Three patients (33,3%) decided to leave the study before concluding. The main reason was the high weight loss in two of them and the lack of improvement at 12 months follow up in the other case.
As a result of the above, it was found that the majority of the children treated with ketogenic diet controlled their seizures (88,89%), with good results in cognitive statements (44,4%) and quality of life (44,4%).
In conclusion it can be concluded that ketogenic diet seems to have been an effective instrument to control seizures and to produce a cognitive and functional improvement in children with drug-resistant epileptic disorders. In general, the diet has been well tolerated with a good treatment adherence. Side effects registered are in accordance with those described in other manuscripts, being the most of them slight effects. Serious complications were not registered.

Keywords: Ketogenic Diet; Epilepsy; Feeding; Seizures

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Citation

Citation: Margarita Castro Rey., et al. “Ketogenic Diet as a Non-pharmacological Treatment in Epileptic Disorders in a Tertiary Hospital".Acta Scientific Pharmaceutical Sciences 4.10 (2020): 31-36.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Margarita Castro Rey., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.