How Fast Does Brain Atrophy Progress In A Child?

Posted on Tue, 29 Sep 2015

Question: my son XXXXXXX is 1 year old. he has generalized cerebral atrophy. I noticed his first seizure at 2 weeks of age but he was not admitted until 1 month old because his pediatrician thought I was miataken, I got a video. since that first admission he's had 8 to follow in a single year. all genetics tests have came back normal and he has had numerous problems, such as respiratory failure, severe scoliosis (68 degree curve) deaf in one ear, central vision almost none, 100% J-tube fed, he has severe reflux and aspiration and couldn't tolerate his gtube feeds, developmental delay, he doesn't do anything, no sitting, no cooing or even crying EVER, so my major question is, how fast does this atrophy progress. we are waiting to hear about his spinal surgery.

Answered by Dr. Prof. Kunal Saha (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Brain atrophy will not progress unless it is due to some other cause

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for asking on HealthcareMagic.

I am sorry to know about the condition of your son. Before answering your question I would need to ask if your child cried immediately after birth and whether there were any issues which could have resulted in lack of oxygen or glucose supply to his brain. Such a thing could have resulted in problems which are not progressive in nature and so unless due to other degenerative disease, the brain atrophy is not likely to progress although the resultant issues will continue to worsen unless managed appropriately. Whether there could be a possibility of some neurodegenerative disease can be commented on only after a thorough clinical evaluation and correlation of the investigations.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar