Ohtahara syndrome is a rare type of epilepsy that usually occurs in infants younger than 3 months and is therefore also known as childhood epileptic encephalopathy.
The first seizures of this type of epilepsy usually occur during the last trimester of pregnancy, even in the uterus, but they can also appear during the first 10 days of the baby’s life, characterized by involuntary muscle contractions that leave the legs and arms rigid due to certain seconds.
- Although there is no cure.
- Treatment can be done with the use of medication.
- Physiotherapy and adequate nutrition to prevent the onset of seizures and improve the quality of life of the child.
In some cases, Ohtahara syndrome can only be diagnosed by the pediatrician by observing symptoms and evaluating the child’s history.
However, your doctor may also order an electroencephalogram, which is a painless test that measures brain activity during seizures.Learn more about how this review is performed.
The first form of treatment indicated by the pediatrician is usually the use of antiepileptic remedies, such as clonazepam or topiramate, to try to control the onset of seizures.However, these medications can produce few results and therefore other forms of treatment may still be recommended, including:
While treatment is very important to improve a child’s quality of life, there are many cases where Ohtahara syndrome worsens over time, causing delays in cognitive and motor development, due to these types of complications life expectancy is low, about 2 years.
The cause of Ohtahara syndrome is difficult to identify in most cases, however, the two main factors that appear to be causing ohtahara syndrome are genetic mutations during pregnancy and brain malformations.
Therefore, to try to reduce the risk of this type of syndrome, avoid becoming pregnant after age 35 and follow all the doctor’s recommendations, such as avoiding alcohol consumption, not smoking, avoiding the use of over-the-counter medications and participating in all prenatal visits, for example.Understand all the causes that can lead to a risky pregnancy.