EC Paediatrics

Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic has caused some difficulties in ketogenic diet therapy (KDT) applications. We aimed to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of pediatric neurologists about KDT and telehealth applications during the pandemic by conducting a survey.

Material and Method: Among all pediatric neurologists in Turkey, those who wanted to participate in the study were included and were asked to fill out a questionnaire consisting of 22 questions. The questionnaire was sent via electronic communication channels (e.g. WhatsApp, e-mail).

Results: Thirty six (64%) of the participants stated that their preference for KDT did not decrease, 40 (73%) stated that there was no change in their preference for KDT in hospitalized patients. Forty-one (73%) pediatric neurologists were in contact with their patients via telemedicine. Fifty-three (95%) of the participants thought that KDT could be easily sustained during the pandemic process and did not need to be terminated, 25 (45%) thought that it was more difficult to use KDT during the pandemic period.

Conclusion: In the present study, it was determined that pediatric neurologists were interested in the use of KDT during the pandemic and thus turned to telemedicine as a method of application. Most of them stated that utilizing KDT during the pandemic period is a personalized and advanced treatment. There is a need to create an infrastructure (medicolegal) so that reference centres with experience in KDT can switch to telemedicine applications. Thus, patients who require KDT would have exposure to best practices during the pandemic.

 Keywords: Epilepsy; Child; Ketogenic Diet Therapy; Covid-19 Pandemic; Telemedicine

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