TABLE 1.

Baseline characteristics of the patients

	N = 16
Gender (boy: girl)	8:8 (50%:50%)
Age at epilepsy onset [months; median (range)]	5 (2‐11)
Duration from epilepsy onset to initial ACTH [months; median (range)]	1.0 (0.3‐13)
Age at LT‐ACTH initiation [months; median (range)]	14.5 (7‐68)
Duration from epilepsy onset to LT‐ACTH [months; median (range)]	10.5 (2‐60)
Epilepsy syndrome
West syndrome (N)	16 (100%)
Etiology
Structural cerebral abnormality (N)	9 (56%)
Genetic (N)	3 (19%)
Unknown (N)	4 (25%)
Development before epilepsy onset
Normal (N)	7 (13%)
Mild delay (N)	—
Moderate delay (N)	2 (13%)
Severe delay (N)	6 (38%)
Not answered (N)	1 (6%)
Development at LT‐ACTH initiation
Moderate delay (N)	2 (13%)
Severe delay (N)	13 (81%)
Not answered (N)	1 (6%)
Autistic symptom (N)	5 (31%)
Aberrant behavior (N)	2 (13%)
Treatment before LT‐ACTH
Number of AED [N; mean (SD)]	4.2 (1.5)
Previous attempts of conventional ACTH
0 (N)	3 (19%)
1 (N)	8 (50%)
2 (N)	5 (13%)
Vigabatrin use (N)	1 (6%)
Ketogenic diet (N)	1 (6%)
Corpus callosotomy (N)	1 (6%)
VNS (N)	1 (6%)

Abbreviations: ACTH, adrenocorticotropic hormone; AED, antiepileptic drugs; LT‐ACTH, long‐term ACTH therapy; VNS, vagus nerve stimulation.