Patients may have grounds for a Dilantin cerebellar atrophy lawsuit if they have experienced a loss of neurons and neural connections in the cerebellum.

A Dilantin cerebellar atrophy lawsuit can secure compensation for patients who remained on Dilantin over a long period of time and were found to have a reduction in the size of a particular brain structure.

The cerebellum is a bilateral component of the brain that sits behind the brain stem and underneath the occipital lobe responsible for the interpretation of visual stimuli. The cerebellum works to organize and fine-tune multiple muscle groups to perform coordinated activity—whether than be as complex as playing a game of basketball or as simple as using your tongue and mouth muscles to respond to a question directed at you.

In 2003, a study linked long-term Dilantin use to shrinkage of this part of the brain. Other studies identified that use of Dilantin in children with underdeveloped brains might produce this same effect whether or not they are on it on a long-standing basis.

Sometimes these changes are dishearteningly permanent and, in that case, the patient may have grounds for a Dilantin cerebellar atrophy lawsuit.

In other cases, removing the drug entirely as a treatment option has allowed the symptoms to resolve. Removal of an anticonvulsant drug from a treatment regimen is never recommended without advice and oversight of the prescribing doctor who can help titrate one medication down while introducing another. This method reduces the chance of seizures and other serious side effects.

Distinguishing Atrophy from Seizure Disorder and Dilantin

Since seizure disorder itself can cause brain shrinkage, one might be hesitant to take the step to file a Dilantin cerebellar atrophy lawsuit on behalf of a loved one or themselves.

This factor, however, was controlled for in a 1994 study where all enrollees had a seizure disorder, but only half were placed on Dilantin and the other half on alternate medication using blind methodology. The enrollees had their brains scanned both before and afterward and those on Dilantin were still discovered to have smaller overall cerebellums.

What are the Symptoms of Cerebellar Atrophy?

Patients with cerebellar atrophy are most often noted to have a particularly identifiable gait that is hesitant and accompanied with a peculiar side-to-side movement of the torso. This is not always the case, however.

Other common issues are a general imbalance, clumsiness, a fine tremor of the hands, slurred speech and nystagmus. Nystagmus is a darting of the eyes which is outside the control of the patient. All of these symptoms can appear as if the person is drunk when viewed by the untrained eye.

The History of Dilantin

Dilantin was first discovered and used as a benefit to control seizures brought on by electroshock therapy. Later, it was one of the first stand-alone anticonvulsant drugs and is still relied upon worldwide as a very valued emergency room drug to treat status epilepticus—a very life-threatening state of continuous seizure. It is rarely a first choice treatment by neurologists for the varieties of seizures for which it is effective like full and partial tonic-clonic and complex partial temporal lobe.