Abstracts

Rationale: The ketogenic diet is an effective treatment for reducing seizures in infants and children with refractory epilepsy. Delayed growth is often cited as a complication of the ketogenic diet. The objective of this study, is to assess growth related to caloric intake in children treated with a ketogenic diet.Methods: Retrospective chart review was conducted of all patients who received ketogenic diet therapy in the level IV Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Children s Mercy Hospital between January 2007 and January 2011. Patients were excluded from analysis if the diet was initiated at other institutions or if they were non-compliant with the diet guidelines. Anthropometrics, including weight and height/length percentiles for age and weight and height/length z-scores for age and caloric intake (assessed via diet recall), were collected at baseline and each clinic visit. Tukey s test was used to compare percentiles and z-scores for weight and height at each time point. A level of =0.05 was used to indicate statistical significance.Results: Mean weight and height-for-age percentiles and z-scores (Table 1) declined over the 12-month period, but these changes were not statistically significant. Declines in anthropometrics were accompanied by steady increases in caloric intake over the 12-month period.Conclusions: In infants and children treated with the ketogenic diet up to 12 months, weight and height decline, although not significantly, in spite of increases in caloric intake. These results require further, prospective investigation.