ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – A five-year old girl with a rare form of epilepsy is now living virtually seizure-free thanks to an unusual treatment. After exhausting all other options, doctors at the Florida Hospital discovered a tiny dose of nicotine administered through a commercially-available nicotine patch was just enough to do the trick.
Five-year old Karen Macon has energy to spare. But that wasn't always the case.
"She'd wake up tired every morning, dark circles under her eyes," Karen's mother, Annie Macon told Ivanhoe.
Doctors diagnosed Karen with a rare, genetic form of epilepsy, called autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy.
"Every single night she was having an average of 20 seizures," said Ki Hyeong Lee, M.D., Medical Director of the Comprehensive Epileptic Center at Florida Hospital for Children, Orlando.
"We tried probably seven different anti-convulsive medications," Macon explained, "None of them worked. We tried the ketogenic diet, it didn't work."
Doctor Ki Hyeong Lee is the medical director of the epilepsy program. Dr. Lee says Karen's genetic mutation appears to be linked to a nicotine deficiency in the body.
Dr. Lee also found evidence a nicotine patch helped stopped seizures in an adult with the same condition.
"Nicotine patch does not have all the bad issues associated with smoking itself," Dr. Lee told Ivanhoe.
Under doctor lee's guidance, Karen's mother placed one-sixteenth of a commercial patch on her daughter's arm before bed.
An overnight follow-up showed no evidence of any seizures.
"I don't see the dark circles anymore and she makes it all the way to bed time and beyond without a nap, so I know that it's working," said Macon.
Dr. Lee says the nicotine treatment was used only for patients with this genetic mutation. He says no research has been done to determine the long-term effects of using the tiny nicotine dose, but so far, the benefits outweigh the risks for Karen. As a result of the treatment, the Macon's have been able to relocate from a major city to a tiny town on the west coast. They had been unwilling to do that while Karen's seizures were uncontrolled.