Seizures-Past Brain Trauma

[julianne07]

I was in a car accident was I was 6 yeas old and had severe head trauma in which my skull did not fracture(paralyzed on my left side completely  for 1 month and in a coma for 5 days). I suffered brain damage as a result(scarring). I ended up having a twitch in which I would jerk my head to the left and down towards my left shoulder for about 6 months and speech problems, eventually came back to normal.

Now 20 years later I am having nocturnal/focal seizures that were originally affecting the left side of my body only in the beginning, but my since Neurologist recently increased my dosage of Tomapax (which I am on for Migraines) I am now having seizures every night that affects both sides of my body... I have had 3 surgeries in the last 2 years and that is the exact time I started having what I thought were night terrors, which I now suspect were seizures as well .Is it possible some scarring in my brain has been aggravated by the stress or anesthetic of the surgeries? I have now been diagnosed with Epilepsy, by two doctors, it just seem a bit weird to me.

I have a small meninigoma on my left frontal lobe but my neurologist has ruled that out as the cause.

Sorry if this is confusing, if you need clarification just ask.

Thank you for your help

[julianne07]

Thank you for the response. I have a routine EEG booked within the next few weeks and a sleep deprived EEG booked within the next month. Its a shame I couldnt have gotten an ambulatory EEG machine, because I have been having seizures every night, sometimes two and by the time I have these tests I will have increased so high on medication they may be gone and will show nothing. I am looking into seeing someone that specializes in seizures, as I suspect my neurologist just generally knows how to treat them, but is not looking into the cause.

Thanks again

[Neuro Forum]

Thanks for using the forum. I am happy to address your questions, and my answer will be based on the information you provided here. Please make sure you recognize that this forum is for educational purposes only, and it does not substitute for a formal office visit with your doctor.

Without the ability to examine you and obtain a history, I can not tell you what the exact cause of your symptoms is. However I will try to provide you with some useful information.

It sounds like you sustained a trauma which affected the left side of your body, which means that likely the right side of your brain was affected. After head trauma, scarring can occur, and can lead to seizures, even years later. That your seizures were first on the left side of your body makes sense, since the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, and seizures affecting the left side of the body would be coming from the right side of the brain. That your seizures now affect both sides of your body could mean that your seizures secondarily generalize: they start on the right side of the brain then spread throughout the brain. To clarify where your seizures are coming from, an EEG needs to be performed during an actual seizure (an EEG records brain activity through electrodes placed on the brain). This can often be achieved with a routine EEG, but if your seizures only occur at night, then admission to an epilepsy monitoring unit for a few days may be important, in order to capture a seizure while you have the EEG leads on.  

I do not know whether or not your recent surgeries had anything to do with your emergence of seizures; it depends on what those surgeries were, if there were any complications, etc. Again, head trauma can lead to seizures years later, unrelated to any other precipitating factors, and you may have developed seizures regardless of whether or not you had surgeries.

If you are having nightly seizures, it sounds like you need adjustment of your anti-epileptic medications, with possibly the need for addition of one or more medications to help control your seizures. If medications alone are not helpful, and if it is determined through EEG and imaging that your seizures are coming from one specific part of the brain, surgical removal of that part of the brain might be possible.

If you have not been evaluated by an epilepsy specialist (a neurologist specializing in epilepsy), this may be of benefit to you. Otherwise, continued follow-up with your neurologist is recommended.

Thank you for this opportunity to answer your questions, I hope you find the information I have provided useful, good luck.