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Reye syndrome

What are the symptoms?

The child develops frequent or persistent and typically effortless vomiting and becomes drowsy. There may also be a personality change, followed by clouding of consciousness, often fitting, then increasingly deep coma. Large amounts of fat develop in the liver. The detection of this helps to diagnose the condition. The brain becomes swollen and increased pressure in the skull can cut off the blood supply causing death, or irreversible brain damage in some survivors.

View Background Background  |  How is it treated? View How is it treated?

Medical text written November 1991 by Contact a Family. Approved November 1991 by Professor M Patton, Professor of Medical Genetics, St Georges Hospital Medical School, London, UK and Dr J E Wraith, Consultant Paediatrician, Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Manchester, UK. Last updated April 2008 by Professor S Hall, honorary Professor of paediatric epidemiology, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

 

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