Tolerance and response to ketogenic therapy in neonates and infants younger than 4 months. Case series in a hospital center in Medellin, Colombia

INTRODUCTION

Ketogenic therapy (KT) studies have focused in children older than 2 years and adults. Recently its efficacy in infants has been reported, but there are few studies in this age group.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We report a case series of nine newborn and children younger than 4 months of age with refractory epilepsy treated with KT. We retrospectively reviewed charts of children treated at our center between 2015-2021.

RESULTS

Data was collected on seven patients. Six patients began having seizures on day one of life, one had seizures starting on day 45. Different epilepsy etiologies were found. KT was started as soon as 9 days of life. The average age at which ketogenic therapy was started was 24 days of life. Initially, the diet was started at 1:1 or 2:1 ratio, and was progressed to a 4:1 ratio. After one month of KT 5/7 patients experienced a significant reduction in seizure frequency (>50%) and 2/7 had complete seizure control. At six months, 4/7 patients achieve complete seizure freedom and 1/7 had >50% seizure reduction. Two patients were lost to follow-up. None of our patients reported gastrointestinal side effects that required diet adjustments. One patient had mild and one mild hypertriglyceridemia.

CONCLUSION

Even though evidence about KT in young children are starting to emerge, our experience shows it can be successful in controlling seizure burden without considerable adverse effects. There is great research potential regarding KT in young children.