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Sleep Apnea in children with Seizures

Mon, 01/22/2007 - 12:21
I was wondering if anyone has information on seizures in young children stopping once they are treated for sleep apnea (generally through a tonsillectomy). My five year old son started to have absence and complex partial seizures 8 months ago. His initial seizures were as long as 15-17 minutes. He was on Depekene alone for the first 7 months which completely controlled the complex partial seizures - but did not fully control the absence seizures - so, after an EEG with our neurologist present that showed three seizures that were "completely typical absent seizures" - we added a low dose of Ziranton - which is working ok - but not completely. The reason that I am writing is that my son also has enormous tonsills. We took him to the ENT last year because he snored so loudly that you could hear him two floors down - and he would frequently stop breathing momentarily and then start again with a loud choking noise - sleep apnea runs in both my family and my husbands. Our son sleeps 11-12 hours a night and still wakes up tired - and is extremely tired by the end of the day. However,our neurologist does not think that there would be any corrolation. He thinks it is more likely the medication. We have requested a polysomnography test with eeg to test for sleep apnea and a second consultation with our ENT who is waiting to see if our son grows into his tonsills before removing them. I have been doing research on this issue and have read several cases in medical journals where seizures were significantly reduced or in some cases actually stopped when the sleep apnea was treated - I am hoping that this might be the case for our son. I would really appreciate hearing any information folks might have on this. Thanks, G

Comments

Re: Sleep Apnea in children with Seizures

Submitted by cplog on Wed, 2007-01-31 - 10:51
I am new her but have been in contact with a friend whos daughter had seizures up to 60 a day at the age of 3, they tried all meds with not sucess then they went to a specialist and she was to have surgery. 6 days prior to surgery they tried 1 more med that seemed to help, down to 4-6 a day. She also began to research sleep apnea and had her atnoids removed. She has been seizure free for 4 months. My daughter had both removed prior to having seizures at the age of 7. She began to sleep better and her attention span was better. Good luck Candy

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