Posted on 03/28/24
Petach Tikvah Israel – Six months after Hamas’ heinous attack on October 7th and the start of Israel’s Operation Iron Sword, Beilinson Hospital, one of the country’s largest medical centers, is treating soldiers returning from Gaza for epileptic seizures due to traumatic head injuries.
Dr. Felix Benninger, Beilinson Hospital’s deputy director of its neurology department who specializes in epilepsy, is taking care of soldiers experiencing epileptic seizures and in need for preventive pharmacological treatment.
“Since the seizures do not always present themselves immediately, it is possible that we will continue to see more soldiers returning from Gaza with epileptic symptoms for years ahead. Approximately, 15-30 percent of severe head injuries can lead to epileptic seizures so this is something we need to monitor very closely as the war progresses,” he said.
Benninger said epilepsy diagnoses can be made at any age but are more common among children and usually less in people in their 20s and 30s. The numbers increase dramatically from around the age of 50 when people are also diagnosed with other brain disorders including Alzheimer's dementia, stroke, or tumors that cause brain changes. Severe head injuries due to car accidence or military service are a significant factor in new onset epilepsy in this young age group, he concluded.
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder in the central nervous system characterized by a disturbance of the electrical activity of the nerve cells in the brain. One of its main manifestations is convulsions, which may last from a few seconds to a few minutes and can be without any warning possibly leading to injuries.
So far, several soldiers who were injured in the war in Gaza have suffered convulsions as a result of the injury, and it is estimated that at least some of them will eventually be diagnosed with epilepsy in need for long term treatment with anti-seizure medication. The professional assessment is that the seizures are the result of inflammation that develops in the brain following the injury. The symptoms are not always immediate and can appear in the future sometimes years after the head injury.
As one of Israel’s largest and most prominent medical centers, Beilinson leads the charge in implementing new innovative treatments while maintaining the highest standards of quality medical and nursing care. Since 1936, Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah has grown to serve more than 500,000 patients annually. The 1,300-bed hospital in Central Israel, staffed by a team of 4,500 medical and support professionals, has 37 operating rooms, performs over 70-percent of all organ transplants in Israel, and welcomes more than 9,000 babies into the world through its robust labor and delivery department