The current evaluation and treatment of infantile spasms among members of the Child Neurology Society.

Abstract

The optimal evaluation and treatment of children with infantile spasms is unknown. To aid in the development of a standardized approach to infantile spasms, members of the Child Neurology Society were surveyed to determine common practice. The survey had 222 responders with a responder rate of 18.5%. We found that the diagnostic evaluation and the use of first-line treatments varied among responders. For example, although adrenocorticotropic hormone continues to be the most commonly used first-line treatment for infantile spasms not due to tuberous sclerosis, some clinicians use corticosteroids, vigabatrin, and topiramate as first-line treatments for this group. Seventy percent of our responders reported seeing fewer than 10 new-onset cases of infantile spasms per year. Thus, future clinical trials will require multicenter collaboration. An important first step in such collaboration is to standardize the evaluation and treatment of infantile spasms within and between participating centers.

• Authors: John R Mytinger, Sucheta Joshi, Pediatric Epilepsy Research Consortium, Section on Infantile Spasms
• Journal: Journal of child neurology (J Child Neurol) Vol. 27 Issue 10 Pg. 1289-94 (Oct 2012) ISSN: 1708-8283 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 22914371 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Adrenocorticotropic Hormone

Topics

• Adrenocorticotropic Hormone (therapeutic use)
• Child, Preschool
• Health Surveys
• Humans
• Infant
• Neurology
• Outcome Assessment, Health Care (methods, standards)
• Pediatrics
• Societies, Medical (standards)
• Spasms, Infantile (diagnosis, drug therapy)