An 8 year-old girl hospitalized with cat-scratch disease and recurrent generalized tonic-clonic seizures is reported from the Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. The convulsant status and altered mental status lasted 4 hours and required ventilatory support. She received cefotaxime and gentamicin for 10 days and phenobarbital for 3 months. The lymph glands remained painful for several months but she ultimately made an uneventful recovery. [1]
COMMENT. Treatment with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole was superior to cephalosporins and other antibiotics in 71 children with cat-scratch disease. The nodes healed promptly and there was no suppuration or drainage [2]. A unique case of severe and lasting neurobehavioural changes after the acute episode of cat scratch encephalitis is reported from the Hopital Neurologique, Lyon, France [3]. The neurological complications of cat-scratch disease are reviewed in Ped Neur Briefs Jan 1991; 5:8.