Who coined the term “status gelasticus”? We did

Other

(1973) Views  (415) Full article downloads

Author: Yu-tze Ng

Published Date July 2009 Volume 2009:5 Pages 405 - 406

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S6241

Yu-tze Ng

Division of Pediatric Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ, USA

In a recent review article on gelastic seizures and hypothalamic hamartoma, Tellez-Zenteno and colleagues used the term, “status gelasticus” mostly correctly but referenced completely incorrectly the origins of the definition of this rare but becoming increasingly known phenomenon. This mistake followed upon an unusual oversight of quoting another author who had simply used the term and most certainly did not make any attempts to define it. We had initially published a case report of a 30-month-old boy who underwent successful emergent transcallosal resection of his hypothalamic hamartoma for status gelasticus which lasted six weeks!3 In this report, we made clear mention that we labeled his “history of near-continuous gelastic seizures” as status gelasticus.