importance of imaging for status epilepticus patients to rule out fractures - a case report

ABSTRACT

Status epilepticus could be the first presentation of underlying epilepsy or may occur in patients with known epilepsy. The literature has reported many cases of seizures severe enough to cause dislocations or fracture-dislocations of the shoulder or hip joints and death from hemorrhaging. Although shoulder and hip injuries due to seizures are rare, such events are known to occur, especially in patients with a history of osteoporosis or other risk factors for fractures. We describe a case of a 35-year-old healthy male with no history of osteoporosis or reduced bone density. His first presentation of epilepsy manifested with status epilepticus. This prolonged seizure resulted in bilateral acetabular fracture with left proximal humerus fracture without any trauma or falls. Although fractures associated with seizures have been reported in the literature, dislocation and fractures from seizures involving both the hip and the shoulder joints have only been described in a few cases. Two of these cases involved patients with known epilepsy, osteoporosis and osteomalacia. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first described case of a patient with bilateral hip and one shoulder fracture that had no previous history of epilepsy or seizures, except for febrile seizure as a child, which did not requiring any treatment. He was also not taking any antiepileptic medications, which are known to reduce bone density. This case shows the severity of status epilepticus and the importance of screening for fractures in patients, especially in those with risk factors for reduced bone density