BENIGN SYNCOPE (fainting) is a common occurrence in adolescents and older children. It is a brief and sudden loss of consciousness and postural tone with spontaneous recovery. Causes include dehydration or dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system, such as vasovagal syncope, also known as neurocardiogenic or reflex syncope, leading to transient loss of adequate cerebral…
No one watching Ethan Byler play on the swing set with his sister, Emily, would point to the toddler and say, “He had a heart transplant.” They wouldn’t know that Ethan was the first child in get a Berlin Heart. They’d never guess this external Benign chest pain inmechanical pump kept Ethan alive until he…
CHEST PAIN is very common in children. Fortunately, serious heart conditions are very rare but include pericarditis, myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias, coronary artery abnormalities, aortic dissection and ingestions. Noncardiac causes of chest pain are seen most frequently and include costochondritis, nonspecific chest wall pain, slipping rib syndrome, trauma or muscle strain. Other noncardiac causes of chest…
Children with slowly worsening headaches and vision loss, blurry vision or double vision may have pseudotumor cerebri. Pseudotumor in adults is associated with obesity and is much more frequent in women. In prepubertal children, pseudotumor happens equally among boys and girls and is not associated with weight, according to Darren M. Farber, D.O., neurologist with Norton Children’s Hospital and…
At just 6 weeks old, Jerren Harrison contracted bacterial meningitis. He was treated and seemed to be doing well — except for what doctors couldn’t see. The infection had crept into the growth plates in his leg bones. When he was 2 years old, his legs stopped growing. Without radical treatment, he would grow to…