Purpose: to use the regimen of ketogenic diet (modified atkin diet) in
addition to anti-epileptic drugs in controlling cases of intractable
epilepsy and compare the results with cases receiving anti-epileptic
drugs only from one month to 36 months.
Subjects and methods: This is a case control study which was
performed on 15 cases of refractory epilepsy received anti-epileptic
drugs and follow ketogenic diet (modified atkin diet) which are the
cases , and 15 patients with refractory epilepsy received antiepileptic
drugs only which are the control with age ranging from 1-36 months
and mean age(1.63 ± 1.13).
Results: showed that, the frequency of convulsions before diet ranged
from 2 to 40 with mean 12.4 and standard deviation( SD) 10.769
compared to the frequency of convulsions after diet ranged from 0 to
10 with mean 2.20 and standard deviation 2.95 and there was
statistically significant difference between the two groups (P. value was
0.001). There was no statistically significant difference between lipid
profile of the patients before diet and after diet. Mean ± standard
deviation of Quality Of Life (QOL) scores was 15.71 ± 1.38 before diet
which changed to 25.57 ± 3.41 after diet .This difference was
statistically significant (P. value was 0.000).
Conclusion: Modified atkin diet (MAD) improved patients with
intractable epilepsy as regards to frequency of convulsions and quality
of life.