concussion + 'pulsating pupils'???!!???

[Minitoots]

My 14 yr old son suffered mild concussion in PE on tuesday morning when he fell and hit the back of his head on the wall. He thinks he was knocked out for a short time. All his symptoms are fairly textbook signs of an injury to the head apart from one - since the accident the pupils in his eyes are contstantly dilating and constricting even though the light is constant. The pupils look like they are 'pulsing' - getting really dilated and then going back to small about 5 times in a minute. They seem to do it at the same time as each other. He's been checked out by several excellent medical professionals - 2 GPs and then because of these strange symptoms the 2nd GP sent us to casualty yesterday where he was seen by 2 docs (but not a consultant) and none of them had seen anything like this before!! I can't anything relevant online about it and wondered if anyone else has had experience of this sort of thing or can suggest what we do next?

[Luke20]

i would go back to the hospital and ask for a scan

[Ann]

Hi, there is an excellent eye departmnet at King's, my husband has been seen there a few timed with emergencies. The number for the department is 0203 299 2601.

Good luck.

[daizie]

I second Luke and Ann. Id go back to casualty and insist on a scan and a thorough investigation from a specialist in the eye department . The eye drops that they put in allows the specialist to see if anything untoward is happening . Why havent they offered this already ?

[darlin']

Or else you could go to Moorfields Eye hospital. They have a walk-in emergency clinic and will see anyone who comes through the door. Don't know where it is in town though, sorry. My dad turned up there one day when he was seeing things "floating" before his eyes and they were brilliant with him- very thorough indeed. He can't stop raving about the place!

Hope you manage to get it sorted. x

[Minitoots]

thanks everyone so far! Have spoken to an opthalmologist at Kings on the phone who reassured me it's not serious, and as we've now see 2 GPs and also been to A+E and seen 2 doctors there, we'll wait and see if it subsides. If not I'll certainly bear Moorfields in mind.

Re: scans - they don't like to give scans unless essential due to dangers of radiation...

[daizie]

On the phone? Sounds to me like everyones second guessing. Unless an Opthalmologist has looked into the back of the eyes with the eye drops that show up everything, plus a scan, I myself wouldnt be convinced . Typical NHS .

[TE44]

http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/common/brain/head/084.html

Found this, if you scroll down the page it ells you what to look out for, this may be immediately after the injury. Hope opthalmologist right that you spoke to,

did he give you any explanation to why it was happening.

but I would go to one of the places mentioned above, just to be sure, hope all goes well.

[Minitoots]

thanks - [familydoctor.org is a useful website. He's slowly recovering now and we met someone else who'd also had the pulsating pupils ('hippus') after a bump to the head. Re: Daizie's comments about the NHS - he was seen immediately by both GPs and 2 docs and 2 nurses at casualty and they all gave him very thorough examinations, and we were further reassured by the opthalmologist who would most certainly have told us to come in for a consultation if he'd felt it was neccessary.

As 7 medical professionals all felt the situation wasn't serious, I'm happy to accept their judgement. We've always had excellent care from our GPs and Kings and I think we're very fortunate to have such good NHS care in our area.

Signing off from this thread now, thanks for all the helpful advice.