Myoclonic astatic epilepsy and the use of the ketogenic diet

Abstract

Myoclonic astatic epilepsy (MAE) is a rare childhood generalized epilepsy syndrome of unknown incidence and etiology. Onset may be explosive with a myriad of different seizure types and children may become severely affected with an epileptic encephalopathy. This disorder may be particularly sensitive to the ketogenic diet (KD). This article will briefly review the background, diagnostic criteria's and our current information regarding the use of dietary therapies in MAE.