ABSTRACT
The ketogenic diet (KD) is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate, low-protein diet that was initially formulated in the early 1920s as a treatment for intractable epilepsy (1). Physicians in the 1920s and 1930s were well aware of the diet’s effectiveness; at that time, phenobarbital was the only other epilepsy treatment in widespread use. With the discovery of phenytoin in 1935, and other anticonvulsants in subsequent decades, the KD was used much less commonly. However, over the past decade, the KD has reemerged as a viable alternative to standard anticonvulsants in the treatment of refractory epilepsy, especially in children. The history of the KD, including its origin and the reasons for the recent resurgence in its use, are reviewed in detail elsewhere (2-6).
