Practice Paper of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Classic and Modified Ketogenic Diets for Treatment of Epilepsy.

Ketogenic diet (KD) therapy is an established form of treatment for both pediatric and adult patients with intractable epilepsy. Ketogenic diet is a term that refers to any diet therapy in which dietary composition would be expected to result in a ketogenic state of human metabolism. While historically considered a last-resort therapy, classic KDs and their modified counterparts, including the modified Atkins diet and low glycemic index treatment, are gaining ground for use across the spectrum of seizure disorders.

The ketogenic diet as broad-spectrum treatment for super-refractory pediatric status epilepticus: challenges in implementation in the pediatric and neonatal intensive care units.

Refractory status epilepticus carries significant morbidity and mortality. Recent reports have promoted the use of the ketogenic diet as an effective treatment for refractory status epilepticus. We describe our recent experience with instituting the ketogenic diet for 4 critically ill children in refractory status epilepticus, ranging in age from 9 weeks to 13.