Fatal damage to the brain by epileptic convulsions after a trivial injury to the head.

The susceptibility of the brain in childhood to anoxic damage during epileptic convulsions is still not yet widely recognized in spite of the pathological studies by Scholz, summarized in his recent monograph on the subject (1951). Two years ago Meyer and his collaborators reported the case of a boy aged 9, who, following status epilepticus developing in the course of Still's disease, was found to be demented, and subsequently suffered from various types of epileptic seizure (Meyer, Beck, and Shepherd, 1955). Post-mortem examination showed widespread damage to the brain apparently due mainly to circulatory and anoxic disturbances associated with the first status epilepticus. In the case we report below, widespread cerebral lesions, also apparently anoxic in origin but in an appropriately fresh state, were found three days after status epilepticus, which followed a trivial injury to the head after a lucid interval of 24 hours.