Recommendations for the clinical management of children with refractory epilepsy receiving the ketogenic diet.

Abstract

The ketogenic diet, a non-drug treatment with proven effectiveness, has been the most commonly used therapy in the past decade for the management of refractory epilepsy in the pediatric population. Compared to adding a new drug to a pre-existing treatment, the ketogenic diet is highly effective and reduces the number of seizures by 50-90% in approximately 45-60% of children after six months of treatment. For this reason, the Argentine Society of Pediatric Neurology established the Ketogenic Diet Working Group. It is integrated by pediatric dietitians, pediatricians, pediatric neurologists and B.S. in Nutrition, who developed recommendations for the optimal management of patients receiving the classical ketogenic diet based on expert consensus and scientific publications in this field.