The curious case of a nine-year-old girl suffering an epileptic attack due to the application of mehendi has made it to the latest edition of Clinical Neurophysiology. The case was reported in Delhi’s Sir Gangaram Hospital.
The nine-year-old suffered her first convulsion after applying mehendi to her hands two years back. The convulsion lasted for 20 seconds.
Recently, she suffered the same epileptic attack soon after applying mehendi twice after which she was brought to the hospital. In hospital settings, she was put under observation with mehendi being applied under a controlled environment.
After application, the patient’s hand was brought near the chest of the patient, and she started having seizures.
Video- electroencephalography revealed an organized background with a posterior rhythm of 9 Hz. The patient became restless which was followed by seizures, the hospital reported.
What emerged is the mere application of the mehendi didn’t trigger the seizures. The fragrance was causing the convulsions.
Dr (Col) P.K. Sethi, Senior Consultant, Department of Neurology, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital while addressing the case told, “this was an unusual case of Reflex Epilepsy, where epileptic seizures are consistently induced by identifiable and objective–specific triggers as against other epileptic seizures which are usually unprovoked. In our reported case, seizures were consistently induced by the application of mehndi.”
“In our patient seizures were not triggered by mere application of mehendi on hands and feet rather it was the fragrance which acted as the stimulus leading to stimulation of functional anatomic networks,” the doctor adds.
The patient is stable now.