What medication is given for infantile spasms?

Medications such as ACTH, oral corticosteroids, vigabatrin, and conventional antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) have all been used for infantile spasms.

What do I do if my baby has infantile spasms?

Early diagnosis is key It is very important that infantile spasms are diagnosed early. If you suspect your baby may be having infantile spasms, talk to your pediatrician right away. Your child may need to be seen by a pediatric neurologist.

What does infantile spasms look like on EEG?

Babies who have infantile spasms often have a unique EEG pattern called hypsarrhythmia. This is a pattern of disorganized background activity and high-voltage spikes and slow waves. Other EEG patterns are also associated with infantile spasms.

Do babies grow out of infantile spasms?

Almost all infantile spasms start by 12 months of age and usually stop by 4 years old. Steroids, ACTH and vigabatrin are the primary treatments. Most children have developmental disabilities later in life.

What do you need to know about infantile spasms?

1 Infantile spasms (IS) are a type of seizure, and are the most common severe epilepsy in infants 2 IS are typically sudden, brief, bilateral and symmetric contraction of the muscles of the neck, trunk and extremities, occurring in clusters 3 IS are often the presenting feature of a significant underlying neurological disorder

Can a seizure coexist with infantile spasms?

In some cases, multiple types of seizures can coexist wit h infantile spasms. This is a chaotic brain-wave abnormality. It can be detected with a lab test. Hypsarrhythmia can strongly suggest that a child has infantile spasms. However, not all children with infantile spasms have this condition.

How old does a child have to be to have a spasm?

Infantile spasms is a kind of epilepsy. It usually begins in children who are less than one year old. Children with infantile spasms typically have clusters of short seizures.

What causes spasms in the brain in infants?

Usually, infantile spasms occur in infants with serious brain disorders and developmental abnormalities that often have already been recognized. Tuberous sclerosis complex is a common cause; prognosis is sometimes better when seizures are caused by this disorder than when seizures have other identifiable causes.