Pearls and Pitfalls of Introducing Ketogenic Diet in Adult Status Epilepticus: A Practical Guide for the Intensivist.

Status epilepticus (SE) carries an exceedingly high mortality and morbidity, often warranting an aggressive therapeutic approach. Recently, the implementation of a ketogenic diet (KD) in adults with refractory and super-refractory SE has been shown to be feasible and effective. We describe our experience, including the challenges of achieving and maintaining ketosis, in an adult with new onset refractory status epilepticus (NORSE).

Substantial and sustained seizure reduction with ketogenic diet in a patient with Ohtahara syndrome.

Ketogenic diet has been shown to be efficacious in some epileptic encephalopathies but rarely reported as being useful in children with Ohtahara syndrome. This could possibly be attributed to the rarity of the disease and associated short survival period. We report on a 5-year-old child with Ohtahara syndrome, whose seizures failed to improve with all known medications, continued to show persistent suppression-burst pattern on the electroencephalography (EEG) and had substantial reduction in seizure frequency for one year post-initiation of ketogenic diet.