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Prognosis

Authoring team

In general the prognosis is poor.

  • poor development is likely to be seen in IS associated with underlying genetic and structural brain issues, regardless of treatment
  • normal or near normal development is present in only 15-25%
  • epilepsy is present in up to 50% of patients
  • autism is present in 15-33% of patients with infantile spasms and as high as 70% patients with tuberous sclerosis and infantile spasms

Aetiology is considered to be the most important predictor of outcome. Better development outcomes are observed in:

  • patients without an identified etiology (cryptogenic/idiopathic)
  • those treated with hormonal therapy rather than vigabatrin
  • short treatment lag (<1 month) especially among cryptogenic patients

Normal or near normal outcomes are seen in 54.3% of the cases with cryptogenic IS while only 12.5% of symptomatic patients have a good outcome

Mortality of the condition:

  • may be as high as 10% at 3 years of age
  • 19% at age 10 years (1).

Reference:

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The content herein is provided for informational purposes and does not replace the need to apply professional clinical judgement when diagnosing or treating any medical condition. A licensed medical practitioner should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

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