Neurology and Neurosurgery

Overview

Lily C. Wong-Kisiel, M.D., a pediatric neurologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, discusses infantile spasms, also called epileptic spasms. She discusses how this type of seizure can be misdiagnosed and the value of catching the diagnosis early.

LILY C. WONG-KISIEL: Infantile spasms-- or epileptic spasms, because they don't always happen in infancy-- is a type of seizure-- epileptic spasms, or seizures, where the head comes down, the arms elevate, the legs come forward. So it looks like the patient or the child is doing abdominal crunches. They are very often misdiagnosed as GI reflux or abdominal discomfort spasms.

So when they do happen, they happen in clusters, one after another over a short period of time. They often happen as the child is falling asleep or upon awakening. With infantile spasms, they need to be caught early, because we know that with a continued misdiagnosis or when this is not appropriately managed, the patient can have regression and developmental plateau.