Question:

Dear Dru,

I have a 6 year old son, and last summer he was in a bicycle accident which caused him to fall and have to get stitches. however the doctors didnt feel that he would need a catscan or x-rays at the time just stitces. now currently in the past 5 month i have noticed a drastic change in his behavior, I have been to the doctors who say that if he is ADD he would of showed signs earlier and the teachers say he is very impulsive and wont follow directions and is distracted very easily, so on that note i have taken him to a pediatric neuorlogist and we have ran many test all coming normal except for my sons EEG it was Abnormal and my son has been put on topomax for seizures , Could you explain what kind of seizures im faced with and how serious is this.

Thank you for your time ,

Lisa

Hi Lisa,

Dru referred your question to me since I am a physician on the Ask a Specialist team and can more appropriately answer medical questions. I will give you as much information as possible about your son’s situation. It is impossible for me to answer parts of your questions since I do not have necessary specific information about the description of your son’s seizures or his EEG abnormalities.

It does concern me that your son’s personality seemed to change at the time of your son’s bicycle accident. I assume that he hit his head and that is where he had the stitches. You do not mention if he had any symptoms of a significant head injury. There is such a thing as a “closed head injury” which can cause some of the personality changes you mention. I would make sure that your neurologist knows about the behavioral changes that occurred at the time of the accident. I would be reassured if your son has had a recent normal brain CT or MRI since this would show that his brain does not now have evidence of a significant injury.

There are many types of seizures. It is very common for children your son’s age to develop seizures, with or without a head injury. Types of seizures range from brief (seconds) loss of consciousness without changing body posture to whole body shaking (grand mal seizures) that can last a long time and cause problems with breathing. The type of seizure is diagnosed both by the description of the actual seizure and the type of abnormality seen on the Electroencephalogram (EEG). These findings guide the neurologist in choosing the type of medication for treating the seizures. Your neurologist should be glad to discuss the type of seizure and the medication he is using. It is unlikely to be able to say if the seizures are related to the accident. If the fall was related to the seizures, and his scans are normal, then that would not change the way that the seizures are treated.

I hope this has been helpful. I am also listing support groups for individuals with seizure disorders (epilepsy) and their families.

Kay S. Browne MD

http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/

http://www.epilepsy.com/

http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/