Today NICE have published their new guidelines for assessment and treatment of epilepsy. The old guideline did not make any specific provision for infantile spasms, lumping all first seizures together and recommending an assessment within 2 weeks.
UKIST are honoured to have been a stakeholder in developing and reviewing the new guidelines, which recognize ( point 1.1 on the first page) that suspected infantile spasms are a unique category requiring urgent assessment by a specialist within 24 hours of presentation.
There is also a whole section within the new guidelines on infantile spasms, which specifies the treatment regime and the care that a newly diagnosed child should expect.
We would like to thank the trustee team, but in particular Louisa Freer, for their contribution to bringing about this change, which we hope will make a massive difference to the speed with which babies with suspected spasms will be assessed, giving them the best chance of rapid treatment which is critical to good outcomes.
The new guideline can be read at https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng217
