Ohtahara syndrome is a rare type of epilepsy that usually occurs in babies under 3 months of age, and is therefore also known as infantile epileptic encephalopathy.
The first seizures of this type of epilepsy usually happen during the last trimester of pregnancy, still inside the uterus, but they can also appear during the first 10 days of the baby's life, being characterized by involuntary muscle contractions that leave the legs and arms rigid for some seconds.
Although there is no cure, treatment can be done with the use of drugs, physiotherapy and adequate diet to prevent the onset of crises and improve the child's quality of life.
How to confirm the diagnosis
In some cases, Ohtahara's syndrome can be diagnosed by the pediatrician only by observing the symptoms and assessing the child's history.
However, the doctor may also order an electroencephalogram, which is a painless test, which measures brain activity during seizures. Find out more about how this exam is done.
How the treatment is done
The first form of treatment indicated by the pediatrician, usually, is the use of anti-epileptic remedies, such as Clonazepam or Topiramate, to try to control the onset of crises, however, these medications may show little results and, therefore, they may still be other forms of treatment are recommended, including:
- Use of corticosteroids, with corticotrophin or prednisone: reduce the number of seizures in some children; Epilepsy surgery: it is used in children in whom the attacks are caused by a specific area of the brain and is done with the removal of that area, as long as it is not important for the functioning of the brain; Eating a ketogenic diet: it can be used in all cases to complement the treatment and consists of eliminating carbohydrate-rich foods from the diet, such as bread or pasta, in order to control the onset of seizures. See which foods are allowed and prohibited in this type of diet.
Although treatment is very important to improve the child's quality of life, there are many cases in which Ohtahara's syndrome worsens over time, causing delays in cognitive and motor development. Due to this type of complications, life expectancy is low, being approximately 2 years.
What causes the syndrome
The cause of Ohtahara's syndrome is difficult to identify in most cases, however, the two main factors that seem to be at the origin of this syndrome are genetic mutations during pregnancy and malformations of the brain.
So, in order to try to reduce the risk of this type of syndrome, one should avoid becoming pregnant after 35 years of age and follow all the doctor's recommendations, such as avoiding alcohol consumption, not smoking, avoiding the use of non-prescription drugs and participating in all prenatal consultations, for example. Understand all the causes that can lead to a risky pregnancy.
