Complex Partial Seizures

My son had his first seizure in Dec 07.  He is 7 years old.  He had a grand mal seizure in the morning while he was sleeping.  He had another at the ER in which he would just turn blue and his oxygen would drop.  They started him on Tripletal, but after about 4 days he wasn't doing good at all.  He had another seizure where he would just lose bladder control and be out of it.  We went back to the ER and they went from 100mg of Trileptal to 350mg in one dose.  He had a real bad reaction and just started acting crazy.  He behavioral completly changed once he got that medicince.  It was so bad they thought he had encephatlis (sp?).  He had one more grand mal after the medicine and he also had the seizures again where he just turned blue and his heart and oxygen levels droped.  They admitted him again and changed him to Zonegran which he's been doing great on now.   The doctors say his EEG shows that his seizures start in the frontal lobe.  My question is...when all this first happened, the doctor said he will more than likely outgrow it.   All his test came back normal except for the EEG which was abnormal.  The doctor said alot of kids have seizures for unknow reasons and they usally outgrow it as they get older.  Now that we have a new doctor he says my son has complex partial seizures that start in his frontal lobe.  He said its hard to say he will outgrow it becuase when you have seizures that usually start in one area you usually have them through your life.  Is that true??!  Or does he not just want to give me false hope??   Does my son at least have a chance to outgrow it???

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

Frontal lobe seizures usually do not stay in the frontal lobe. They are known to spread to other parts of the brain unless they are controlled with appropriate medication. This is a fact you should have at the back of your mind, so that you can judge the situation objectively.

Your son has a chance of outgrowing the seizures. Make sure he gets the medication regularly.

Regards

[hlsryan]

My son just turned 4 in June--seizures started in March w/a grand mal. He's now on trileptal--unsure if we should go to zonogran. He's been have short seizures - yesterday 9 which was tyhe most--since he's been on that med. He's had seizure free days but it's unbelievable how he'll just short out!! I don't know what to do - he has a bad temper @ times from the meds OR the seizures--I'm afraid the Zonogram may make him worse????  I was told he's grow out of them too more than likely.

[ktmom]

Hi, my son is 4 and just went on trileptal a few months ago.  He has focal seizures/temporal lobe (partial and partial complex) not sure if this is the same as your sons-it seems these seizures have many names.  He has had them since 2 1/2..  My son does have a strong tempermant and is very particular about things-I have seen a bit of increase since the meds started but not much. I am not sure if this is really from the meds or not-I also have heard that children with seizures tend to have more coorelated emotional disorders such as ADHD/OCD etc.  But of course not exactly sure how true this is.   My doctor said most likely he also will outgrow them because nothing showed on the MRI. I have also heard from another doctor at the hospital that it is a 50/50 chance.  I wish you both the best with your children.  I hope you both find the right meds.  Anyhow if any of you want to chat online, please feel free to email me back.

Best of luck to both of you.