Dietary therapies for childhood epilepsy.

Ketogenic diet composed of high fat and low carbonhydrate was introduced as a therapeutic alternative for epilepsy in early 20's. As new antiepileptic agents such as phenytoin were discovered, popularity of the diet was waned until 90's. Studies on efficacy of diet in refractory epilepsy reported that approximately half of the children had a significant reduction, 15% of whom were seizure free. With growing body of evidence and introduction of diet modifications, ketogenic diet was promoted as a first line treatment for epileptic encephalopathies such as myoclonic-astatic epilepsy , Dravet syndrome and infantile spasm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]