EEG rhythm of alpha frequency in a 22-month-old child after strangulation.

A 22-month-old child suffered accidental strangulation, which rendered him comatose with intermittent generalized tonic-clonic seizures. His elecroencephalogram (EEG) displayed widespread activity of alpha frequency unreactive to sensory stimuli. Upon clinical recovery, a slower posterior EEG rhythm, attenuated by eye opening, was detected, which was more consistent with the patient's age. This observation is remarkable, because of the rarity of reports of an alpha pattern after cerebral anoxia in young children and the subsequent EEG and clinical evolutions.