Latest American and European updates on infantile spasms.

Infantile spasms remain a challenging condition to study and treat, and although they form the commonest epilepsy syndrome with onset in infancy, the challenge is broadened by the wide range of potential underlying causes. The field of study remains dynamic, with debates relating to case definitions and organising structures for classification of seizures and epilepsies in general, and a newly proposed genetic and biologic classification specifically for infantile spasms. There have been recent consensus statements, a Delphi process eliciting prioritised quality-of-care indicators, systematic reviews of treatment, and a survey of clinical practice in the USA. There is increasing evidence that longer duration of spasms is associated with poorer neurodevelopmental outcomes. It has taken many years to develop an animal model that reasonably represents infantile spasms, but there are now several animal models, and they are leading to innovative and valuable studies that suggest novel treatments.