Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2023 Jun 8;15(6):e40155.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.40155. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Seizures Provoked by Greasy Pork in a Patient With Refractory Focal Epilepsy

Zacharia Shebani  1 , Alexander J Brown  1 , Camila Narvaez Caicedo  1 , Schweta Rane  1 , Todd Masel  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Seizures Provoked by Greasy Pork in a Patient With Refractory Focal Epilepsy

Zacharia Shebani et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Seizures have been reported to be directly triggered by certain foods in some people with epilepsy. On the other hand, eating epilepsy has been mentioned in the literature as a rare disorder characterized by clinical and EEG findings that vary from patient to patient and are interestingly prevalent in certain geographic areas. Epilepsy in these patients is either idiopathic or due to underlying brain pathology. We present a case of refractory focal epilepsy in which the patient reports seizures provoked by eating greasy pork. During the admission to the epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU), the patient did not have seizures during the first three days of the admission despite antiepileptic medication withdrawal, sleep deprivation, and photic stimulation. However, when he consumed greasy pork, he had tonic-clonic convulsions about five hours after eating. On the following day, he had another tonic-clonic seizure after eating greasy pork.

Keywords: eating epilepsy; epilepsy; partial seizures; pork-provoked seizures; provoked seizures; seizure triggers; seizures; semiology; video-eeg.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Brain MRI shows bubbly-appearing intraparenchymal cortical or subcortical lesion in the posterior aspect of the right superior frontal gyrus
Figure 2
Figure 2. MRI of the brain. (A) T1 coronal; (B) T2/TSE coronal
Figure 3
Figure 3. EEG of the episode is limited due to artifact. The onset of the seizure is not clear and is difficult to localize.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Seizures triggered by eating - a rare form of reflex epilepsy: a systematic review. Girges C, Vijiaratnam N, Wirth T, Tjoakarfa C, Idaszak J, Seneviratne U. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2020.09.013. Seizure. 2020;83:21–31. - PubMed
    1. HLA-B*1502-bound peptides: implications for the pathogenesis of carbamazepine-induced Stevens-Johnson syndrome. Yang CW, Hung SI, Juo CG, et al. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2007.06.017. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2007;120:870–877. - PubMed
    1. Symptomatic eating epilepsy: two novel pediatric patients and review of literature. Vercellino F, Siri L, Brisca G, Scala M, Riva A, Severino M, Striano P. Ital J Pediatr. 2021;47:137. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Familial eating epilepsy. Senanayake N. J Neurol. 1990;237:388–391. - PubMed
    1. Yacubian EM, Skaff R, Garzon E, et al. Reflex Epilepsies: Progress in Understanding. Montrouge: John Libbey Eurotext; 2004. Seizures induced by eating in a family; pp. 123–133.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources