Abstracts

Rationale: The ketogenic diet (KD) is a high fat, low carbohydrate diet which is an effective therapy for treatment resistant pediatric epilepsy. The initiation of the diet in most centres is done as an inpatient to monitor for potential adverse events. Since the establishment of the KD Program at BC Children's hospital (BCCH) we have initiated the diet in the majority of patients using an outpatient protocol. The primary objective of this study was to review the safety of initiating the KD as an outpatient at our centre. The secondary objective was to describe the efficacy of the KD. Methods: Medical records of patients with epilepsy followed through the KD Program at BCCH between January 1996 and January 2011 with a minimum of 2 year follow-up were retrospectively reviewed. Information collected included: patient demographics, adverse events during diet initiation, seizure types, epilepsy syndrome and etiology, treatment duration and efficacy of the KD. The KD is usually initiated as an outpatient unless the child is <