Modified Atkins diet for the treatment of nonconvulsive status epilepticus in children.

The authors describe the use of a modified Atkins diet for the treatment of 2 children with nonconvulsive status epilepticus. Patient 1 was a 4-year-and-11-month-old girl diagnosed with frontal lobe epilepsy. Since the age of 3 years and 10 months, she had daily nonconvulsive status epilepticus resistant to antiepileptic agents. Patient 2 was a 5-year-and-5-month-old girl with subcortical band heterotopia. She had nonconvulsive status epilepticus daily since the age of 5 years. They were treated with the modified Atkins diet, in which carbohydrate intake was restricted to 10 g/d without restriction on protein, caloric, or fluid intake. The nonconvulsive status epilepticus disappeared 5 and 10 days after the initiation of the diet treatment, respectively. They have been on the diet treatment and free from nonconvulsive status epilepticus for 19 and 4 months, respectively. The modified Atkins diet appears to be very effective for the treatment of nonconvulsive status epilepticus.