THE EPILEPTIC CHILD AND COMPETITIVE SCHOOL ATHLETICS

Abstract

THE RISK of injury during competitive athletics is real and constant for all children, even in the presence of well supervised programs. Injury may occur despite efforts to select the proper sport and to ensure that individual skills are sufficiently developed, that the environment and terrain are suitable, and that the equipment is properly designed and fabricated. To keep this risk at a minimum, it is necessary at times to modify the athletic program of children with certain health disorders. One of these is epilepsy. In children with epilepsy, as in children with any chronic disorder, it is important that the patient and his family recognize early during the course of the disease that certain adjustments in the daily routine may need to be made. However, in considering adjustments, one must strike a balance between the needs of the child to participate with his peers in their daily activities and the limitations to living a full life which any restriction may impose. With proper balance in these areas and optimal management of the disease process, the child with chronic illness would be able to develop the self-confidence necessary to live independently in the community as an adult. Epilepsy is a disorder which may accompany or follow a large number of known medical conditions. However, from a quantitative point of view, the major problem is the group of children with seizures of unknown etiology, or idiopathic epilepsy. The convulsive seizure results from a sudden hypersynchronous discharge which disrupts the usual pattern of neuronal activity, resulting in a variable disturbance in some function of the nervous system.