Suggest Treatment For Syncope Episodes

Posted on Wed, 6 May 2015

Question: My son is 17 years old, History of RA and has a solitary kidney (MCDK) otherwise healthy. Currently weighs 170lbs and is about 6'1. Over the last 3 months he has experienced nausea, vomiting, lost 10 pounds, passed out in our dinning room (like a board - 18 days ago), hit the ground, under eyes were as black as can be, broke his jaw, 7 stitches in chin and broke 3 molars. Over the last week he said he has been experiencing periods at school where he gets really hot, shaky, and feels like it's hard to breath and goes away after a few minutes. We've been to 2 ER's and seen his PCP, and there seems to be no concern. We are currently trying to get his teeth fixed but the dentists don't want to touch him in fear he'll pass out or have a sezeir. We have an BCBS HMO. I'm stuck, need some direction. Should I be pushing for a specialist? If so, would it be a Cardiologist or Neurologists? We need HELP/advise

Answered by Dr. Benard Shehu (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Following answer to your query.

Detailed Answer:
Hi and thank you for asking!
I read your query and understood your concerns.

Your son has had syncope episodes and he should do all the needed examinations to find out what had caused it.

Syncope in most of the cases is caused by cardiac problems and you should contact a cardiologist to exclude cardiac causs of syncope.

If he was my patient i would recommend the following examinations to find out what have caused the faint (syncope ):
- blood work (to exclude renal failure and other metabolic problems)
- ecg
- cardiac echo
- holter monitoring
- eeg and brain mri to exclude neurologic causes especially epilepsy.

Hope this was of help!
Wish you health!
Dr. Shehu

Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar